


Quixotic

by ElfMaidenOfLight



Series: Gundam Wing (Disarmament & Quixotic) [2]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Angst, Duty, F/M, Family, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Operation Meteor, PTSD, Politics, Post-Canon, Post-Endless Waltz, Preventers (Gundam Wing), Preventers are basically the Secret Service and the CIA, Relena says "I'm sorry" a lot and Heero wishes she wouldn't, Romance, Sexual Content, The Barton Foundation, UST, millitary, more strange things falling from space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:27:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 51,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfMaidenOfLight/pseuds/ElfMaidenOfLight
Summary: AC 202. Post EW. The Preventers are an elite force, designed to protect high-ranking government officials and ensure the Alliance's survival. Heero Yuy is the best among them, even though his position is officially 'Bodyguard,' and he prefers that to military assignments anymore. When a supposedly simple operation, to infiltrate a new-age cult within the capitol, heralds the arrival of a prophetic shooting star, Heero discovers that the Bartons didn't just invest in the creation of the Gundams.  Just what is a Perfect Soldier?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N- This story takes place a little over 5 years from Endless Waltz. It incorporates lots of canon information from the series/OAV and then moves into a new adventure. However, I would not consider this AU as the rules of the Wing universe are still in play. Also: I've not read Frozen Teardrop (the whole chronology of the story confuses the fuck out of me) so I won't be focusing on integrating too much of the serialization.
> 
> Hope you enjoy. As always, I don't own Gundam Wing. If I did, I'd write a new series.
> 
> \---
> 
> Quixotic
> 
> adj. Chivalrous or romantic, to a ridiculous or extravagant degree.  
> \---

" _This is the only thing I can do for you right now."_

Truer lines were never spoken, and in his life, he'd said them twice.

Both times to women, if that were anything to go by. He was starting to think it was.

The first, to a grieving girl over the mistaken death of her Grandfather. It was the only course of action he could find to complete his failed mission. Looking back, Heero could concede that Sylvia Noventa had been right; he'd been a coward.

Revenge. That how he thought the grieving souls of the deceased's families were eased. That's what he was taught in relation to the Colonies, and to Earth. It was naïve. He knew now; revenge only lead to meaningless battles. Apparently illegitimate children did too, but in retrospect, none of them could have seen that coming.

" _This is the only thing I can do for you right now."_

The second time, it felt like those words had come from a different man. Although both instances could have resulted in his death, it was different when saying them to Relena as she clutched the edge of Wing Zero's cockpit, her helmet thrust over the controls into his face. More… hopeful. At least, 'hope' was how he identified the feeling. She was the first person to ever give him some semblance of hope. She was the first person who ever gave a damn about him coming back alive, more so even then himself.

His life had always been compartmentalized into missions. Missions like his father had, or so he gathered, from the files he was able to recover before taking Zero offline for good.

He supposed he had once thought of Relana as a mission too. The whole careening wake of her, that swept him up in its relentless tenderness. Affection will rationalize strange things, and when you act on your emotions, the lines tend to get a bit blurred.

It made him wonder about the circumstances of his birth, of Mariemaia's, of all of them. Of all the ones who came before and all the ones who would come after. It made him wonder how such fucked up people as his father's generation could have given birth to children. But he had to remind himself, their children had turned out pretty fucked up too.

But he was getting off topic.

Heero would always need an end goal, he knew that. If protecting Relena was that end goal, he would lay his life down. But it was foolish to dismiss the fact that he cared about her. He did. She was a part of him as much as his Gundam was, more even; because he was content to send Zero into the sun while he was pretty sure he'd go on a homicidal rampage if anything were to ever happen to the (formerly Vice) Foreign Minister.

He could explain this to her, but she would undoubtedly pout reminiscent of an unhappy debutant, and ask him why he didn't 'live for himself'. He couldn't help it. She was… if it were not for her he would be dead. If not for her he wouldn't know what is _was_ to live.

Heero realized quite early on that these were the kind of things women like to hear. It stroked their egos. But he couldn't say them. It wasn't that his feelings were false, but in all honesty, he was a bit embarrassed about them.

Relena could be intimidating, although he'd never admit it out loud. Still, those who knew him well enough could pick up on it.

"Pah, women… _do_ that," Duo Maxwell would converse casually during mission down time. He'd cross his arms over the chest of his borrowed Preventer's uniform- he'd become one of the organization's part-time contractors- and tilt his head back, as if he'd gone from The God of Death to The God of Relationship Wisdom. "They fuck with your _mind_ , man."

Not that he would ever, _ever,_ ask Duo Maxwell for romantic advice. The man was a constant revolving door of bickering, sulking, and making-up with his wife. Most of what the braided pilot had to say came unsolicited, and usually required the silent treatment or a good threat to shut him up.

"Sometimes you've gotta take control, Heero! Women like that kind of thing."

Heero adjusted the digital focus on a pair of binoculars and ignored the comment. He and his loud-mouthed partner were currently tailing the head of a small group of 'freedom fighters' in the Capitol. It was rumored they were planning on causing a disturbance during the upcoming Mars Terraforming Commission's conference in a few days.

Relena would be there.

There was no doubt he'd be on her personal security detail.

He knew he was the best, and that's why they always assigned him to her. It wouldn't have mattered, he'd have volunteered anyway, but they put him on the roster like it was a given. Sometimes, he thought, they wanted to see if he'd refuse. Like it was a test. They wanted to see how long he'd stay stoically by her side; how long it would take before his feelings got the better of his protocol.

Did he love Relena? It would certainly be better for them both if he didn't. Less complicated. But then, he was starting to think life ever being 'less complicated' was a bit of a pipe dream.

"Be rough with her. You know," Duo continued, munching on a bag of something loud and obnoxious in the unmarked car's passenger seat, "throw her up against the wall, rip off her pantsuit, threaten her life- heh, I almost forgot, you've already done that last one."

Through the lens, Heero could see their target down the street being escorted into an inconspicuous building. "I'm warning you now to stop talking, while you still have all your fingers." He typed the building's address down on the cruiser's center console computer pad, one-handed.

Duo rolled his eyes, "Jeez."

"Your lack of focus is the reason the Preventers won't hire you full-time."

"I _do_ run a business too, buddy."

"You're wife runs that business and you gamble away the profits, which is why you're here."

"Are you going to do this the _entire_ mission?"

"Hn." Heero set the goggles down, "They've gone inside."

More typing on the computer pad.

Now that he thought about it, there wasn't really one defining moment where his relationship towards Relena had changed. It was much more fluid. He did know, at one point, that he had been annoyed with her. More than annoyed. She could have compromised his entire mission. But after a few encounters, when he could have clearly disposed of her but hadn't, he realized that she was worth protecting.

At least, politically.

She was important to his mission, a part of his tactical advantage. And then love? Well, that was harder to pinpoint. And even harder to define.

Maybe it really _was_ love. But most of the time, Heero wasn't even sure he could correctly identify the emotion. He certainly did care for her.

Somewhere around the time he spent in the Sanq kingdom his regard for her had grown. When she followed him into space…

Seeing her alive on Libra had nearly undone him. He'd been so flooded with relief. It had taken every ounce of training since he was a child to keep his soldier's cool composure.

Not that it was unrequited. He knew exactly how she felt, which would make a relationship that much more dangerous.

A small voice inside his head reminded him that, for all his stoicism, he'd been unable to completely resist her.

On more than one occasion.

"So, are we gonna do this?" Duo cracked his knuckles as he leered out the windshield.

"No."

That prompted a grumbling, incredulous sigh, "Are you kidding? Then why the hell'd ya bring me out here in the first place if-"

"Cool it," Heero reached behind the passenger seat, pulling back up with him a camo-green duffle bag. He plopped it down on the other pilot's lap. "You've got everything you need in here."

Duo raised en eyebrow as he unzipped the duffle. Inside under the extra shirts, lightweight jacket, and some cash, a handgun glimmered.

"The conference is tomorrow."

"And?"

Heero frowned, "Didn't you read the mission briefing?"

With a cavalier smile, Duo said, "I _never_ read the mission briefing."

Of course.

"You have paperwork claiming you part of the rebel group. It's a conglomeration of a few worldwide cells headed by what they consider a 'divinely inspired' leader. The have gained a… diverse following, so you won't be noticed. I will be covering the Foreign Minister-"

Duo snorted, "I bet you will."

That was ignored, but there was an edge to Heero's voice when he spoke next, "We believe they will try and disrupt the Conference. There's no direct threat to Relena's life, but we want to keep an eye on things."

"Who's covering the President?"

"Wufei."

Duo let out a bark of laughter, "That's perfect. I bet they're having the time of their lives together."

"Dorothy Catalonia has the full support of every Preventer agent."

"Uh-huh."

After a moment, Heero couldn't help the small chuckle at the thought. "No, they don't get along very well at all."

Dorothy Catalonia was the only person in the entire Earth's Sphere that could out-rant Chang. Heero had seen it in action, and after a few failed attempts to gain dominance, Wufei had quietly stopped trying. He hadn't admitted defeat, not exactly, but there was an extreme unwillingness on Wufei's part to engage the President in fights he could not win, even if Dorothy did goad him. Heero surmised that a bit of the man's pride had been tempered as a result.

It was a surprise Sally Po didn't give the other woman some kind of award, for her job was made infinitely easier as a result.

"So," Duo checked the clip before tucking the handgun in waistband of his jeans, "I'm suppose to just walk _in_ there?"

"I thought stealth was your specialty."

Duo popped the passenger door, sliding out and closing it behind him. He leaned in through the open window. "You know," he said, as he adjusted his new jacket, tossing the Preventers one in the backseat, "I'm real glad Relena's been mildly successful in prying you out of your shell, but maybe we could keep the sarcasm to a minimum, huh buddy?"

Heero clipped his seatbelt, raising a pair of dark sunglasses to his face. "Get in touch with headquarters tonight. Until then, you're on your own."

"Yeah. Roger that."

Duo watched the other pilot turn the engine over, adjust his mirrors, check over his shoulder for on-coming traffic. Give me a break, Duo thought, with an amused grimace.

Heero pulled into the lane and sped out of sight.

Duo cracked his neck. "Well," he said with a huff, "lets do this."

Slinging the bag over one shoulder, the former God of Death now God of Relationship Wisdom, skirted oncoming cars and darted across four lanes of traffic to the other side of the street.

The target building was down the sidewalk by about six full lots, but there was an alley that would lead him around back.

The streets were relatively clean, he thought, if its alleyways were anything to go by. The Capitol was like that though; they kept it pristine in order to make foreign dignitaries feel comfortable and safe. Well, Duo supposed that he and the others were doing their part as well, keeping the Earth Sphere safe from crazy terrorists and post-war nut jobs.

And Heero didn't have to be so mean. So Duo didn't take on _as many_ assignments as the others. He certainly took more than Quatre, and he _certainly_ spent more time in the Colonies then Heero ever did anymore. The majority of that guy's time in space was spent guarding Minister Darlian, following her like a scowling shadow.

Maybe it was good thing, the braided pilot surmised, pulling himself over a chain-link fence and dropping down without a sound.

Maybe that close call against Mariemaia had finally knocked some sense into him.

Heh, Duo thought with a grin, then again, it wasn't likely.

Heero didn't necessarily _avoid_ new field assignments, but the ones he did engage in were never longer than a month, and almost _all_ had to do with the Foreign Minister, or the President's, direct safety.

It wasn't, Duo thought, that Heero had no interest in being more involved, it was just that most post-war missions weren't dicey enough to warrant someone with Heero's talents. The Preventers had been dousing relatively tiny 'fires'; it wasn't worth the Perfect Soldier's time. When he could, Heero seemed to enjoy the quiet life of a Bodyguard.

But none of them could stay away forever. Fighting was ingrained within Heero just as much as it was ingrained in the rest of them.

It was why they still took these kinds of missions.

Kneeling, Duo unzipped the duffle bag, pulling out his fake passport and other 'credentials'. He scanned the document.

"Hmm, let's see..."

The organization was called… _Children of the Meteor..._? Duo raised an eyebrow. That was… odd. It looked like they had a small, but vocal, following on the net too. They resided mostly on conspiracy forums, and their beliefs were murky at best.

Guess they saved their real 'business talk' for the in-person meetings.

And they did have a leader they considered to be 'divinely inspired', as Heero had put it.

First Disciple Xen Ferox.

Grand master sir wizard champion of the nut balls. Or whatever.

The guy hadn't been a soldier under OZ, or part of the Treiz Faction; not a member of the Colony rebels, or the White Fang. There were no records of him acting under Marimaya or being a part of Earth's resistance fighters. In fact, there was hardly any background on Ferox at all. It was like he had appeared, right out of the blue, just a couple years ago.

Tucking the papers in his pocket, Duo slung the bag back, peeking around the side of the building. Up ahead, two men with guns stood amidst the shadows of an inconspicuous double doorway. Standing, he threw his shoulders back, took a breath, and strode around into the open alleyway.

He hadn't even walked fully out of the shadows before one of the guards cocked his rifle, pointing it in his direction as they spotted him.

"Stop right there!" The man barked.

Duo's hands flew up, "Hey now, we're all friends here."

There was a tense moment of impasse.

"Look," he continued, "I'm here about the- uh- club meeting? I even brought my dues," he said, motioning to his bag, where the wad of cash weighed heavily against the canvas.

"Don't move!" The guard snapped. "Now step forward, slowly…"

Walking into the light, Duo rolled his eyes. "You are aware those are two completely opposite commands, right? Huh?" He blinked in surprise.

"Lower your weapon," the second guard said in a low, calm voice to his comrade, "I know this guy." Duo squinted into the dark doorway.

Trowa?

The other Preventer agent, dressed in civilian clothing, gave Duo a small smile.

So, he'd gone undercover too.

The first guard lowered his gun, barking gruffly, "Well, lets see some proof then. Show me your invitation." Duo came forward, fished the papers out, and handed them over. The guard, nose wrinkled, looked them over begrudgingly.

"So," Duo shoved his hands in his pockets, addressing Trowa directly. "How long you been here for? We haven't seen each other since that… uh, that thing."

"Since the birthday party."

"Riiight."

Relena had hosted a gala event back in April. All the pilots had been in attendance.

Trowa leaned against the metal doorframe; "I've been here about a week helping with logistical plans."

The guard gave a grunt, handing Duo back his papers. "You two know each other through- what?"

"The War," Trowa said, before Duo could even open his mouth. "We became Children right after that, didn't we?"

Duo blinked, "Yeah, that's uh- that's right. That Ferox is one convincing guy!" He hiked the dufflebag higher up his arm. "So, you gonna give me the tour?"

The former pilot nodded, "My shifts over anyway. I'll send out the next one," he told the other guard before opening one of the big metal doors, motioning for Duo to follow. The man still on-duty gave him a sneering, untrusting glare as the braided pilot slipped past into the darkness beyond.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

As much as Maxwell was a complete idiot concerning his- and everyone else's'- personal life, at least the man was successful where his missions were concerned. Heero's lip twitched at the thought of Duo's face when he realized he wasn't the only Agent assigned to infiltrate Ferox's group. Adding Barton to the mix assured them an almost flawless outcome, allowing Heero to focus on more… important things.

He flicked the cruiser's blinker before changing lanes.

Like chauffeuring.

He might take on he occasional mission or two, head up a operation remotely, but his primary role- or, what it said next to his codename on the payroll- was still 'bodyguard'. It was decidedly… nice. Quiet. Well, maybe not quiet, but it could be considered borderline catatonic when compared to his life just a few years earlier.

Not having to kill people… not having people want to kill you. It was refreshing.

But sometimes, he missed flying effortlessly through the air; feeling the controls of an 8.0 metric-ton war machine moving effortlessly under the tips of his fingers. For a variety of reasons.

Heero pressed the break pedal as the driver in front of him decided on being inept.

No traffic, for instance

It would be a slow crawl from the Capitol's warehouse district, all the way across town, to the Parliamentary and Embassy buildings. The city streets were sluggish on a good day, but just twenty-four hours away from an official televised speech and the roads turned into their own, special hell. Heero had to switch his brain into stand-by mode just to stave off the monotony of it all.

Heero Yuy liked to go fast. Fast cars, fast motorbikes, and fast mobile suits.

Cruising through a four-way intersection at a mind-numbing fifty km barely registered as a blip on his radar.

Not that he had resigned himself to the company car without a fight, either. For the first few months it had nearly driven him insane; he'd tried to convince Une to sign off on him using his Preventer's SK-5. It was a compact little motorcycle; low to the ground, sturdy, with quite a bit of pick-up-and-go once he'd made the proper modifications. Unfortunately the woman hadn't been too keen on the idea of the Foreign Minister hanging off the back of what she called, "a two-wheel death trap".

But the alternative was the most boring method of transportation he'd ever had the misfortune of piloti - driving. It wasn't his fault. He'd become accustomed to having two vernier rockets strapped to his ass, propelling his tiny metal coffin through the atmosphere fast enough to break bones. Or kill. He's seen both during his training, before he had even stepped a foot inside Wing Gundam.

Heero's right hand strayed from the steering wheel, finger punching the radio dial without having to look. The station preset, already tuned to an ESUN news broadcast, filled the cruiser's cabin with the station's cue music, followed by the host's prompt commentary.

" _It's twelve-thirty Capitol time, and we are EPR, ESUN's public broadcasting station, riding the airwaves from our Capitol headquarters to the colonies, and beyond. I'm your host Kris Theron and today we've got political analyst Doctor J here with us to discuss the upcoming Conference. Welcome, Doctor!"_

Heero blinked in surprise.

Doctor J?

His eyes narrowed where they watched the road.

" _Thank you Kris,_ " a woman's voice followed quickly after. _"We're expecting big things with both the President and Foreign Minister in town…"_

He immediately relaxed, shoulders dropping down from where he had unconsciously tensed them. What was he thinking? The man was dead. Exploded into space.

His fingers clenched around the steering wheel, jaw tight.

As much as he owed his life to that man- his survival- Heero supposed that Wufei was right. They had all been irreparably damaged by their experiences while under their various Doctors' "care". He and Chang had spoken a few times on the subject, briefly.

_"What do you remember the most? About your training?"_

It was one of those times where all other pleasant conversation had been exhausted.

Heero had to think about that one. There were plenty of witnessed horrors. People dying; people he had killed; but those had eventually blended together. Not that he couldn't remember every face of every target he'd eliminated, every breath of burning fuel-soaked air, but it was… not uncommon.

No. It wasn't that.

"The centrifuge."

It was part of his pre-Gundam training, when he was eleven or so; when his life consisted of nothing but sixteen hours of simulation gambits a day.

The first time he'd seen the giant apparatus, Heero had watched the one of the other trainees from the sidelines. He wasn't the only 'apprentice' Doctor J had working for him, but he _was_ the best. He was the Alpha, even though many of the other recruits thought of him as a mere child.

" _Faster."_

_Heero's dark eyes flicked towards Doctor J as he stood at attention in the control room. The technician sitting before the complicated consol grasped one of the toggles and slid it upwards one single notch. The Doctor's mechanical arm clenched with the hollow sound of metal-on-metal as, through the safety glass, they watching the giant swing arm of the centrifuge go around and around and around…_

" _How much is that, now?"_

" _Eight Gs, sir."_

_Reaching forward, the Doctor depressed a button, opening a channel into the cockpit. "How are you feeling, Theta?"_

_They could see the man's picture on the control panel's display. Theta's face was distorted, the skin flung back against the hard bone of the skull. The teeth were barred. Heero supposed that's what happened when your lips were being pulled right off the front of your face._

" _I-!" The man was struggling for words, yelling as loud as the remaining oxygen in his lungs would allow. "… my- it's tunnel vision, sir! It's start- starting to go dark!" The man sounded… scared._

_Doctor J released the button, and said to the technician, "Put it higher."_

_A muscle in Heero's bicep twitched._

" _But sir," the young tech protested, "any more and he'll G-LOC."_

" _I know that," Doctor J snapped with a grim smile. "You think OZ isn't pushing their pilots? Testing the limits? This is war! There are consequences! Now put it higher!" He pressed the intercom once again as the machine whirled faster._

_Heero could hear the desperation in Theta's voice, an almost child-like distress. "I can't see! I can't see! Stop! Stop! Stop the test! Stop the-" Theta's body, already plastered against the centrifuge's cockpit, seemed to… change. Any fight, any tension left in the muscles, disappeared. As if the man had suddenly fallen asleep._

_His on-screen vitals plummeted._

_An alarm sounded._

" _Shut it down."_

_From a separate door into the chamber, a number of medical personnel rushed in, the centrifuge slowing to a stop. As two nurses pushed a wheeled gangplank against the hatch door, another two ran to the adjacent wall, uncoupling an on-sight defibrillator from its casing._

_They extracted Theta's body, carried him down the steps, and laid him upon the floor. Heero watched, remaining impassive, as they ripped open the front of the man's suit, sticking small, wired pads against his chest._

_3-_

_2-_

_Theta's body convulsed._

_A shiver ran up Heero's spine. He was young still; although talented in almost every field the Doctor tested him, he'd seen little combat. It was still a few months before his first trip to Earth, and his first field assignment. Doctor J had made sure the boy's innocence was weaned fairly early on, but there was still some remaining shreds of childhood left in him then. Those shreds began to swell dangerously as he watched Theta twitch and writhe._

_Finally, the man's chest heaved, a hand shooting up to grasp at one of the nurses' shirt collars, twisting the fabric around quivering fingers._

_Heero let out an inaudible sigh of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding._

_Doctor J seemed fazed not at all, and clicked his hand. "Reset the test," he told the technician, and then turned to his young protégé, "Well? Go on. You're next."_

The Embassy building, with its white spires and columns, loomed at the end of the street.

Heero pulled the Preventer's cruiser against the designated security parking curb. The blabbing woman on the radio cut off abruptly as he killed the engine, pulling the parking break. Glancing the time on his phone, it was ten minutes until Relena's lunch hour and her security shift change. He checked the gun at his hip before getting out of the car.

"Sir," one of the on-sight guards gave him a salute as he took the stairs up the Embassy's front steps two at a time. The automatic doors slid back, the vaulting ceilings inside echoing with the sound of pattering shoes and telephone rings, the chatter of personnel and shuffling papers.

He gave the woman at the receptionist desk a curt nod as he skirted the security checkpoint. With his level of clearance he wasn't given much trouble when it came to avoiding the metal scanners and pat-downs. It was still regulation, and as much as Heero was one for adherence to mission parameters, he just didn't like the idea of partially undressing- removing his weapon- just so they could look at his badge and wave him through.

And no one ever stopped him.

He'd seen the inside of the Embassy building plenty of times, but it never ceased to impress upon him that, only a few years ago, he would have never thought himself walking freely around a government facility. Not unless he was there to plant explosives or assassinate some political figurehead.

Relena would be in the main conference room off the East Wing…

And now he was protecting one.

Two more Embassy sentries were stationed outside the large wooden double-doors. Relena's personal guard would be inside. It was probably one of the greenhorn recruits. They always stuck the young trainees in relatively safe situations. Here, the Foreign Minister was surrounded by enough security that Heero would be exceptionally surprised if anyone could fuck up _that badly_.

Standing opposite the doors, Heero leaned his shoulders back, folding his arms tightly over his chest; head bowed and one heel to the wall. Peering up from behind his sunglasses, he could see the guards look at him, and then glance at each other.

Hn.

The meeting ran late, by approximately six minutes and forty-three seconds.

He could hear the chairs inside the hall scrape back, and a familiar voice rise over the growing murmurs, "I will be meeting tomorrow morning with the President to discuss these proposals. I except to see each of you in attendance at the conference, but as far as meeting face-to-face, we'll be picking this up next week. I'll be sending out a memo after meet the press tomorrow afternoon." The doors opened, and he could hear her clearly now as the various legislators filed out, "Thank you all for coming!"

Various men and woman in business attire flooded out into the corridor, assistants nipping at their heels. Heero stood aside, waiting, until the only remaining figure other than Minister Darlian was a young aid. The two were poring over some overlarge document laid open upon the table. Relena's head was down, finger pointing to something, until she seemed to notice she was being watched.

Her bright blue eyes, catching the light filtering in from the room's tall windows, trailed up from the desk, up through the open door, and caught his dark, glowering stare. The 'all-business' pout to her lips cracked; he could see her smile.

"Is that all?" She asked the aid, who nodded, rolling up the document. "Alright then. I'm going to lunch."

Straightening up, turning, her embroidered vest glinted as she whirled around to grab her jacket slung over the back of a chair. Her hair was still quite long; she had to lift it up out of the coat collar, pushing it back over her shoulders. Picking up her leather bag, she made a quick exit, modest heels peaking out from under grey, straight-legged slacks.

The low-level Preventer agent, a young girl with short, punky-pink hair, followed Relena out of the conference room, but stopped short when catching sight of Heero pushing out from against the wall. The girl opened her mouth, but he cut her off.

"You're dismissed."

The corner of Relena's mouth quirked.

A slightly awe-struck, "Uh- yes sir…" followed the pair as Heero led the way back towards the foyer.

There was a moment of silence between them. Heero could see Relena's head bobbing beside his shoulder out of the corner of his eye. As always when with her, his right hand strayed to the holstered handgun at his hip. Force of habit.

"We were late," Relena murmured as they approached the security exit, glancing at her watch, "I wonder if I have time to see my secretary."

"Do you want to stop?"

Her lips scrunched to the side, "No, I better not. I'm meeting mother for lunch." She looked up at him a little guiltily. Heero blinked back at her, giving nothing away. But she knew… he and Mareen didn't necessarily get along. In his opinion, the woman would have been more vocal about he and Relena's almost inseparable, probably improper, attachment to one another, but was silenced by the fact that Heero had vowed to dedicate his life- and death- to protecting her daughter.

"Hn."

He preferred her lunch hours free, just the two of them. Not that they did anything exciting together anyway; he just liked her company, all to himself. Standing behind some table for an hour while the two women ate and gabbed, sometimes about him much to Relena's complete embarrassment, was about as tedious as driving.

"Stay here," he said, pausing her with a sweep of his hand. Relena stopped short of the sliding doors as Heero walked down onto the sidewalk, scanning the street. Popping open the back passenger-side door, he nodded her over. Relena walked down the steps and out into the sun.

She looked dubiously at the open door. She preferred to ride shotgun, but the back offered more protection with its bulletproof tinted windows, so she rarely protested.

Heero shut the door behind her, walking around the back of the car with his hand still clasping his firearm. They'd had an incident a few years ago, when a would-be kidnapper rushed the car after Relena had gotten inside and before Heero had stepped off the curb. Nothing came of it. Heero had shot the man right between the eyes before the driver's door had been breached. Une had been displeased at his 'shoot first, don't bother with questions later' course of action, but Heero did not take chances.

"I'll never kill anyone ever again" did not apply to those who threatened Relena's life.

As he slid into the cruiser, door locking behind him, Heero took a moment to steal another glance at the Foreign Minister using the rearview mirror. She was looking out the window, hands clasped in her lap as he started the car.

"We're meeting at the Royal Prix hotel," she murmured, pulling her phone from her bag and flicking at the touch screen. "Could you put on a bit of music? Not too loud," she grinned, clicking her seatbelt but letting out the entire tether so to slide as far forward as possible up the center consol. She propped her elbows down on the leather as he reached forward to fiddle with the radio.

" _\- I think it's a smart move on her part. Minister Darlian's calculations-"_

Relena groaned. Heero twisted the dial, changing quickly to some 'popular' music.

"Sorry."

"It's alright," she sighed as they got underway. "So, how was your morning?"

"Fine."

"Uneventful?"

He shrugged.

"I heard from Hilde that Duo has gone missing again. Is he on another mission?"

"Hn."

He couldn't really tell her. The less she knew the less she became a target for those seeking to infiltrate the organization. These were the days Relena hated most. Days where his work was unspeakable, when he offered her about as much in terms of conversation as he had during his days at Saint Gabriel's.

She leaned back against her seat, "Well, there's no pointing telling you how my day has been, Heero. You've heard everything on the news by now."

They turned onto First Street.

"Not everything." He paused, trying to think of something to ask her. There wasn't much he didn't know, that was true, but not because of the news. Relena's personal itinerary was forwarded to everyone on her security detail. "How are you… holding up?"

"Well, the conference tomorrow isn't a huge problem as long as everything goes as planned. And my mother's charity work is going well. I have no real complaints." She smiled at that, but it didn't reach her eyes. She did have complaints, _real_ complaints, but they probably had nothing to do with her political life.

He knew she was lonely; but he was doing all he could. He was protecting her life, by her side almost every day. It was all he knew _how_ to do.

They pulled into the hotel's roundabout, waved through into the underground garage by the valet thanks to their government license plate.

Mareen met them in the restaurant lobby. She gave Relena a tight hug and a kiss, pulling away only to give Heero an icy look as the maître d' began leading the way towards some sun-lit patio seating.

"Not outside," Heero said, calmly but firmly. There wasn't enough cover without another guard on hand.

The hostess faltered. Mareen scoffed.

"She can't even sit _outside?!_ You cannot be serious."

He blinked vacantly at her.

"It's fine, mother," Relena took the woman's arm, leading her towards the back of the restaurant. She cast an apologetic look at him over her shoulder.

"You're a young woman Relena, not some pariah," Mareen continued to hiss.

Heero followed after, removing his sunglasses and taking stock of the room, eyes falling on Relena's arm around her mother's back, the way the cut of her jacket pulled in neatly at her waist, accentuating the curve of her hip. She seemed to float.

He was hungry.

The women took their seats and he took his place behind Relena's chair against the wall, arms crossed. The maître d' gave him a nervous look as she presented the menus, clattering the silverware by accident. He didn't mean to fluster her; he just had that effect on people.

"So, mother," Relena's pleasant voice drowned out the nasty mood Mareen always inflicted upon him, "tell me everything about what's been going on at the charity." It was a project they had started together; an exchange program between the schoolchildren of Earth and the Colonies.

As they chatted, Heero settled back into his routine of vigilant visual perimeter sweep while simultaneously tuning out everything else around him. While still keeping a sharp eye on the restaurant, his attention wandered back to the memories surfaced earlier by the public radio broadcast.

" _Reset the test," Doctor J told the technician, and then turned to his young protégé, "Well? Go on. You're next."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to the NASA website, most fighter pilots can withstand suit-less vertical g-force testing up to 8 or 9 Gs. As we all know, Heero Yuy is an "enhanced human", so I'd expect him to go at it a little harder… maybe this is too much of a spoiler for Chapter 3.
> 
> Progression of excessive vertical g-force is as follows (Wikipedia):
> 
> 1\. Grey-out, where the vision loses hue, easily reversible on leveling out.
> 
> 2\. Tunnel vision, where peripheral vision is progressively lost.
> 
> 3\. Blackout, a loss of vision while consciousness is maintained, caused by a lack of blood to the head.
> 
> 4\. G-LOC ("LOC" stands for "Loss Of Consciousness").
> 
> 5\. Death, if g-forces are not quickly reduced, death can occur.


	3. Chapter 3

_The hatch door sealed behind him with an airtight 'whump'._

" _Ready?" Came Doctor J's voice over the intercom_

_Heero tightened the buckle around his chest. "Roger."_

_The machine whirled to life, the cockpit slowly beginning to spin._

" _On-board sensors normal," he rattled off absently, feeling a slow but tight constriction in his chest._

_The pressure steadily built moment by moment; his body tensed under the increased gravity._

_The blood rushed in his ears, mixing with the mechanical whirling of the machine underneath him. It felt like he was flying, no, falling- down, down through the atmosphere. The ground was coming up to meet him, coming closer, with each passing second._

" _How many is that?"_

_For a moment it didn't register that Doctor J was taking to him._

_He assessed the onboard controls, eyes going wide. "Ten Gs."_

_But- how was that possible?_

" _How do you feel?"_

_He felt-_

_Theta had flat-lined at eight, and while this was certainly… uncomfortable…_

_Heero couldn't raise his arm off the armrests, but he could move his fingers. That in and of itself was…_

" _Are you watching this?"_

" _Huh?"_

_But the Doctor was speaking to someone else. Not the technician. There was the crackle of a radio. Someone unintelligible, over a channel Heero could not hear. "Yes. It's as I told you. He's the perfect candidate; a powerful weapon. We'll put it up to twelve. Right."_

_Weapon?_

_The controls must have been adjusted. Pressure slammed into his chest; the room beyond the safety glass one continuous blur._

_Damn, he thought, despite his best efforts it was going dark-_

" _That's enough. That's far more than he should ever encounter. Shut it down."_

_Heero gasped air back into his lungs as the weight lifted, pulse wild in his ears. That was no good. Focus. His eyes fluttered closed, concentrating_

_His breathing stilted, leveled, the pounding in his temples muted to some degree._

" _System shutting down." And just like that he was back in control, the way he preferred. How he was taught._

" _Congratulations," Doctor J's face appeared on the consol's screen. He was grinning, the skin around his mechanical eyes crinkling, metal claw snapping together. "You've passed the test for your new assignment."_

_He could feel beaded sweat prickling his brow. "New… assignment?"_

_As far as he knew there were no other operations beyond destroying the enemy soldiers occupying the colony… along with the occasional assignation. What else did the man have up his sleeve? But he had joined Doctor J for the chance to free the colonies. Whatever needed to be done, he'd do it._

" _Theta was our only other candidate, but you've always outperformed him..."_

" _I understand." He began to unclip the restraints with mostly-steady fingers._

" _You'll be assigned a new codename."_

_Heero paused. "Hn?"_

" _And you'll clean out your barracks, too. You no longer have the luxury of making friends. What's in store… it's far too important for any kind of distractions." Doctor J's grin widened. "Report to the briefing room when you're finished."_

" _Roger…" his voice came out less restrained than he was use to, or that he should have allowed, but the screen had already switched off, the Doctor's face disappearing. For a long moment Heero sat there, one hand on the door-release latch, listening to the humming silence._

_A new mission._

_The adrenalin coursing through his veins was making his mind race._

_How far back did he have to go before he remembered anything but new missions…?_

_It was all… faded._

_A gun in his hand, someone teaching him how to shoot. A toy Leo._

_But before that?_

_No._

_Nothing, save for half-formed dreams, pushed aside by training and protocol._

* * *

Heero snapped to attention as Relena pushed back from the table, dabbing her lips with a napkin.

"I'll be right back, mother. Lady's room." She glanced towards him, as did Mareen, the latter with a sour look on her face. How the woman hadn't realized, by now, the level of protection her daughter' position warranted made him more annoyed than he cared to admit.

"Don't think of her too harshly, Heero," Relena said once they were out of earshot, trailing behind him into the little bathroom lobby.

He didn't answer, but un-holstered his gun, pushing open the woman's restroom door with his elbow. Relena paused, waiting, entirely too use to this routine.

A woman washing her hands in the sink gave him a terribly startled look.

"This bathroom is closed."

She might have told him off but the intensity of his gaze, and most definitely the movement of the gun returning to his side, hastened her hand drying. She shuffled out of the room, giving him a wide birth.

"My apologies," he heard the sincerity in Relena's voice. Maybe the thing she resented most about her position, he thought, wasn't the danger to her life, or the time invested, but the inconvenience to other people.

He held open the door. "It's clear."

She smiled, touching his forearm gently as she passed. Before the door closed behind her, he heard her tired sigh echo about the tiled room.

"Uh-"

"It's closed," he deadpanned to an old, but wealthy looking woman, as she stopped short of his guarding the door. Another few moments and he felt it open again behind him. Relena stood there, framed, but hung back even as he made to escort her back to the table.

Stopping, turning, he caught her gaze. "Something wrong?"

The crushing weight of that question- what it could mean, how deep it could go- settled unsteadily in his chest.

He would never ask her to step down as Foreign Minister. Hell, he might even force her to stay if she ever tried. She was essential to the reunification process and to the future of their survival. To peace. But Heero had a hard time reconciling the fact that it had become her life, wholly. For him it was no great sacrifice, but for her… he didn't want her life to be so singularly dedicated as his had been.

He stood beside her.

A part of him wanted to reach out and touch her, comfort her, but that would be… compromising. His guard would be down. He- _they_ couldn't afford that.

"I'm going to take the rest of the day off," she muttered finally, pulling out her phone. He said nothing. She continued. "For all my mother's incessant nagging, she's right- I've been working hard on the conference. Everything else I have today can be tackled after the event. That's one thing you and she both agree on."

Relena gave him one of those small smiles that, despite his training, always made him feel like she could see right through him.

"Hm."

He couldn't argue.

The rest of their late lunch passed without incident. On the one hand, Mareen seemed delighted that her daughter was taking a personal time, but she was less enthused when Relena informed her that it would be _solitary_. To her credit, Relena resisted the urge to glance at him.

"You'll phone me, dear, when the conference is over?"

"Of course, mother."

The women hugged, exchanging kisses on each other's cheeks. Heero fished the cruiser's keys from his jacket pocket.

"What do you want to do?"

His voice echoed about the elevator. As he pressed the Garage button, Relena gave her mother at the concierge desk, a little wave. But as the doors slid closed she took a step back to lean against the brass railing, giving a sigh.

"Honestly? Watch trashy television for a few hours." He raised a single eyebrow. Relena smiled at her shoes. "Is that a problem? I don't want to interfere with… whatever it is you get up to when I'm not around."

"Hn."

"Is that a _no?_ "

"No. It's not a problem."

The car was pulled around, and they had been driving for nearly fifteen minutes before she spoke again, and by that time they were well on their way out of the city center, driving towards the outskirts. It wasn't a safe house, not really. The government knew where he lived, after all. But it was quiet and easily protected. Most of the other buildings were still vacant, some still being built.

Still, it was as close to a permanent residence as he'd ever come before.

They had this unspoken arrangement about the whole thing. If anyone knew… well, Une would be displeased, but not surprised. The others would make a bigger fuss. If the press, or her opponents, came to their own conclusions…

Heero caught her in the rearview mirror, bent head spilling golden hair onto her lap as she looked down at her mobile. Not doubt texting her secretary.

That's what he had to deal with now. Schedules and partisan bullshit. It tried his patience much more than the grind of the battlefield. Unlike his namesake, he really had little desire to engage in politics.

Maybe that was why he allowed this; let her in- because she had been caught in the same conflict he had, but with considerably less experience. Her natural talent for it still amazed him.

"You'll be on my detail tomorrow?"

The cruiser turned down another street, a more vacant one.

"Hn. Yes," he amended quickly. He could nearly hear her slow smile.

They parked under the covered carport beside the partially empty condo complex. It was still an underdeveloped area; some of the buildings were mere wooden bones, other more finished structures bellowed sheets of plastic from their pane-less windows. It was quiet, which he liked, and the Preventers paid his rent.

How had the two of them comes to this? Heero wondered, fishing the electronic key from his pocket, Relena exiting the car and trailing her hand along the side of his parked motorbike as she passed.

She waited at the bottom of the iron staircase as he deactivated the booby traps remotely. One could never be too careful.

"It's open," he said finally as the remote's indicator light flashed green. He followed her up the staircase, watching the way her fingers barely traced up the handrail as she ascended.

At the top of the landing, Relena already inside, he bent to the small sensor control pad against the corner of the front door. The electronic trip wires had to be re-calibrated before everything was back in place.

He sighed, going about the work nearly on autopilot. Inside, he could hear Relena tossing her bag onto the small bed, flipping on the TV, rummaging around through the miniature refrigerator.

He came inside and closed the door behind him, walking to the desk and turning on his laptop.

From the kitchenette, Relena called softly, "Water?"

With a nod Heero went to the sink, reaching for the glass Relena pressed into his hand.

But she did not let go.

A sensation, one he could never really identify, uncoiled in his chest.

There were no excuses here. No cameras, no would-be assassins; no kidnappers. This was the safest place in the city- above ground, anyway. When she couldn't take the time to steal away to the countryside but still needed a breather, this was where she spent her down-time. Her alone-time. Here. And she had always jumped on the opportunity to play the game of house with him. It was a danger to them both, this duality in their relationship. But he did not object. He was not sure he wanted to object. It was… a confusing predicament, which floated them along, running the line between professional and… something else.

Relena's gaze flitted from the counter to his face, and back again. Despite her compulsion to be near him, it was clear it still embarrassed her. Maybe because he knew exactly what the thinly veiled glanced and brushing-elbows meant.

And she knew he knew it, too.

Ugh.

He was beginning to get a headache.

Heero plucked the glass from her fingers, setting it down upon the counter.

She watched his movements, lips pressed together in the most self-deprecating way. "Can we really keep doing this?"

"Huh?" Heero blinked. It never occurred to him that they could do anything else _but_ continue on… until, well… until the world ceased in needing them. Maybe never. He knew that. Didn't she?

Relena laughed, a short, humorless burst of air as she reached for him, fingers curling around the cuff of his jacket like a child would, immediately anchoring him.

"For a very long time now I've felt like my life is being split in two."

He frowned, watching her from under his bangs. Yes, he understood, but there was nothing else he could do for her except _this_. And it was far more than _he_ had ever been given, or was taught to give. His fingers caught her hand, curling them inside his own, but said nothing.

She watched him expectantly, like he would suddenly be able to understand just what she wanted him to do- just what she needed from him- but eventually gave up, eyes tilting towards the ceiling. "Life can't be perfect I suppose."

His frown deepened. As much of a fool Maxwell often was, he was occasionally right too. Women lead him in circles. At least, this woman did.

How someone could be more complicated than the underside of a mobile suit circuit board, he would never know.

In the airy silence of the small apartment, Relena pitched forward to lay her head against his chest. He stiffened momentarily. Her weight was not unfamiliar, but her touch had always made him feel… different. His shoulders hunched after a moment of holding her, fingers barely tracing through the length of her hair.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was muffled against his jacket and against his shirt.

He took a shallow breath; ready to reiterate the same words he always used when she asked such ridiculous questions-

"I know, I know, _to protect me."_ Relena's free hand, hovering by his side, picked at the fabric of his shirt. There was humor to her voice. "But is that all?" Heero took another measured breath. She huffed, pulling away before he could answer. "I wish you wouldn't do that; regulate your pulse..."

At that he smiled, the corners of his mouth curling barely upward. "Military side effect-"

She tipped up to brush her lips against his. Warm and chaste, it was not unlike suddenly becoming off balance. So much so that he clasped her tighter, almost unconsciously, watching those blonde eyelashes flutter closed.

He could not- did not want to- push her away. Instead his hand found the underside of her chin, tipping her head to the side and deepening the contact. The alarm bells going off in his head were pushed aside, his composure predictably undermined by this infuriating, nonsensical, beautiful woman. She loved him, even when he hated himself, and it was as addicting as adrenaline.

Relena sighed against his parted lips as they broke away for air. "You were gone for almost a week; I missed you. You're by my side so often now- I've become spoiled."

His chest rumbled, "You were always spoiled."

She grinned, her other hand coming around the inside of his jacket to press against the small of his back. He thumbed her jaw.

Maybe-

If they were different people maybe then they could have had this, whatever it was.

But she was right; life wasn't perfect.

He cupped her face with both his hands, her bright blue eyes trailing up to meet his, and kissed her with renewed intensity-

-before they were interrupted.

Her breath was in his ear, the soft skin of her throat caught beneath his lips, "Is that your computer beeping?"

Heero dropped his hold of her immediately, clearing his throat. Under her fingertips, his heartbeat pounded. "Work," he said flatly, moving away towards the table without giving her a second glance. A little video icon bounced in the corner of an otherwise blank blue screen.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"It's fine." He pulled the computer around so the screen faced away from the kitchenette and slid into a chair, clicking on the icon. A feed box popped up.

_call from: Unknown_

It was Duo, then. He was early. Damn. He never liked taking operations calls when he was guarding Relena.

 _kissing_ Relena, a little voice amended.

"The channel is secure," he said, fingers racing over the keyboard, "go ahead."

With a _pwip_ , Duo's dark, grainy picture came into view

" _Heya there, buddy!"_ He whispered in an, although quiet, still obnoxious enough voice. _"Whatcha up to?"_

Heero's eyes flicked over the top of the computer, to where Relena had picked up the glass of water and moved to sit upon the edge of his bed.

"What's your report?"

The man pouted. " _You didn't_ _ **tell me**_ _Trowa was going to be here! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of things myself, you know. I'm not_ _ **that**_ _rusty."_

"Higher rate of success."

The braided man scoffed. _"Higher rate of-!"_

Heero tapped his finger idly on the return key. "What's your report?"

_"Hey man, don't rush me. Do you know how_ _**hard** _ _it was to find an_ _**empty** _ _room to-"_

"I'm cutting the video…"

_"Ok, ok! Geez."_

Relena smiled down at her cup.

_"Everything's going pretty smoothly, thank you very much. The group is going to be protesting on the Assembly building steps, but we think Ferox has infiltrated some of the on-sight staff, so there might be a few operatives inside the venue."_

His eyes narrowed. "Have you identified the operatives?"

 _"No, we haven't. And before you get all over my case about it, Ferox has that part all hush hush. If we had more time maybe we could have…"_ Over the feed, Heero could see the former pilot reach up to scratch the back of his head nervously. _"But that's not the weird part."_

"Huh?"

Duo leaned in closer. _"They've got… charts. Star charts. Trowa says they're tracking something."_

That wasn't in the briefing. "What is it?"

He shook his head, _"We're not sure, but it appears to be moving. It's smaller than a mobile suit, but… Ferox says it's a meteor; you know, like the group's name, but the trajectory isn't erratic enough."_

"A meteor?" At that Heero scoffed, "The man is deranged. He's feeding people the lies he needs to blind his followers. How could any object go undetected by the ESUN defense radar? Or the Preventers'?"

" _Don't know. "_

Heero frowned. One too many 'don't know's for his liking.

" _We can't arrest Ferox just for protesting."_

"You and Trowa position as close to the main doors as possible. If one of his operatives tries to make a move, we might need backup."

_"Right."_

"Try and get your hands on any other useful information."

_"Yeah, good luck with that..."_

"Try," he said again, in an unpleasantly forced kind of way.

Brown eyes rolled towards the ceiling, hand making flippant, circular motions in the air. _"Ok, roger that. Well, we'll see you at the rendezvous then. Tell the Foreign Minister 'hi' for me, you know, if you see her, which you will, because let's be honest, you just can't stay awa-"_

Heero shut the lid of the laptop with a sharp _click,_ cutting the feed. The particular tone of Duo's voice made the silence that came after even sharper.

Finally, he murmured, "Sorry."

Relena leant back on her elbows upon the bedspread, a smile playing about her lips that made his whole body feel flushed. "Not a problem." Her eyebrows creased after a moment's thought. "I wasn't aware of any protest tomorrow."

"Need-to-know basis."

"Oh…"

That might have been unnecessarily harsh. He tried again; voice pitched lower, softer, as he got to his feet and reached for the TV remote. "I didn't want to worry you."

It was her turn to blush.

* * *

"What did he say?"

"Oh, you know, the usual."

"Did you tell him about the meteor?"

"Yeah, I did." Duo shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "He doesn't seem to think anything of it."

Trowa stepped away, crossing the floor of the small, cramped storage room towards the cracked door. "There's something about it… I'm not sure."

From a room or so away they could hear Ferox's rumbling voice.

Duo leaned forward. "What's he saying?"

Trowa pressed a finger to his lips.

" _Bothers and Sisters, I tell you- fear not the end of this world! Fear not the end of this wrenched civilization! For you will survive the great cleansing; the great change! This revolution! Our shooting star will bring us salvation, brothers and sisters, will bring us knowledge, and power… the power of the whole of outer space. It will be yours. The proof is right here in the charts, and in this-"_

They couldn't see it right then, but they'd watched Ferox wave around a small black-leather book enough times to imagine it.

There were murmurings of assent; the parishioners would be prostrating themselves before him, praying to the supposed meteor Ferox promised.

Duo shuttered. "Heero said it was a cult, but he didn't mention there was some sacred ritual coming up."

"Must be a new development. Or Ferox was keeping quiet about it until now."

"What should we do?"

"Those papers he always carries," Trowa whispered back, "his 'teachings'. They might tell us something."

"We can't just _jump_ the guy! Our cover…."

"Then we'll wait. Bide our time. Let's see how things go tomorrow.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

Her phone rang, but neither of them moved.

He held her up against the wall next to the window, the smooth skin of her back pressing into the plaster, arms wrapped around his neck. It was late afternoon; the light from the setting sun filled the room with fire. The TV had been muted for a while now.

She enjoyed, as they breathed together, running her fingers over the skin of his stomach, and then back around to his sides.

His head was bowed to rest on her shoulder. Heero felt her sigh with such easy contentment, it made him smile.

Their relationship had always been a close entanglement, he knew that; take away the intimacy and she was still at the core of him. They were bare before each other from when he'd pointed that gun in her face at St. Gabriel's, to when as she watched him from the tarmac of the Sanq kingdom. The physical part of it came naturally- so much so, that it surprised him how easy it had been, a year or so after vowing to stay by her side, that they had… well. If he were under oath he would have staked it on the result of alcohol. Her birthday. But they both knew that would be a lie.

She never said very much about it. He never asked. They were together, it escalated, it happened, and then it was over. These kinds of moments were rare. Very rare. He could count on one hand…

The phone rang again.

Her breath fluttered. "Bothersome thing..."

He grunted in response, silently relishing in the way she moved beneath his fingers.

This dance they did- it was usually after he returned from extended missions. Or when her political life threatened to overwhelm her. It was an outlet, or anchor maybe. She needed to assure herself that he was here. That this was real.

Heero had been hesitant, more so than Relena. Then again, this was the woman who launched herself into space; who flew airplanes into the middle of mobile suit battles. He didn't think she was hesitant about much of anything anymore.

" _The thing with people trying to kill you,"_ he remembered her saying once, _"is that you learn to appreciate what you have and when_ _you have it. Don't take anything, especially your time, for granted."_

Despite his prowess in weaponry and combat, these kinds of things-- physical intimacy-- were never part of the mission parameters. He let her lead. Partly out of courtesy, out of respect, and partially because he didn't know what the hell he was doing. That helplessness wasn't a feeling he was use, or accustomed to. It made him nervous. She eased that.

Relena trusted him, explicitly, and in more ways than one. She trusted that he would always return to her side, and maybe that's why she let him in.

Moments before- he could recall it perfectly- she had been clutching him, desperate. She pressed against his body, her nails digging into the flesh of his shoulder, cheek flush with his, but with her face slightly turned away. She never lost complete control, and maybe that was something they both shared.

As the world came back to them, as the bubble around them burst with her trembling and his clutching her hip, a barely audible " _Tich-"_ of pressure and release passing his clenched teeth- she would always say, in a breathy voice, "I love you, Heero."

It was the only time she would ever say it like that; out loud and low-toned. There were other times, where she used the phrase flippantly, as if ' _of course, because I'm in love with_ _you'_. But not like this; this was different.

"I love you, Heero."

"Hn…" the sound was like a purr as he kissed her jaw, breath hot against her neck.

"Do you?"

He pulled away, searching her face, brows drawn together. After a moment he said, quietly, "What do you mean?"

Her bright eyes searched his face. "Are you really, truly in love with me, is what I'm asking."

Something clenched within his chest.

Fear.

He was afraid.

Heero hesitated for just a moment longer than necessary.

"Never mind," she looked away, "I don't want you to hear your answer. "

"…Relena…" he growled, gripping her arms.

"It's painful for you…" The calmness in her voice threw him, but her fingers curling around his bicep rooted him to the spot. "I understand. It doesn't matter anyway, you may protect my life but I'll always be here for you too. Heero." At that a wiry smile curled her lip, crinkling her eyebrows. "As if you couldn't tell already."

His grip on her hips clenched. She kissed the side of his mouth, cheek pressed against his.

After a moment they broke apart. It was some kind of silent acknowledgement where he would unpin her, and she would walk primly across the floor, dragging her clothing and bag off the end of his bed, before retreating to the modest bathroom on the other side of the flat. The door closed with a sharp _click_ as he bent to gather up his jeans. He glanced after her.

Heero wondered what she thought of herself, as she caught her own eyes reflecting back at her in the bathroom mirror, as she re-strapped her bra and combed out her hair. Did she have to reassure herself that this was what she really wanted?

Tossing the black Preventer's shirt aside, he rummaged through the chest of drawers for a familiar green tank, pulling it over his head.

Relena appeared a few minutes later, looking as put-together as she had when coming out of the Embassy building.

"It's getting late," he said. She glanced at her phone, tucking hair behind her ear.

"I want to go back on the bike."

"Relena-"

"-Heero," she said in a similar tone, which was meant to mock him.

He frowned. "It's the night before the Conference."

"No one would suspect it, then." She said easily, stooping to pick up a spare helmet from behind the small table.

"No one would suspect the Foreign Minister to be so foolish," he murmured.

"You're beginning to sound like my mother, Heero."

He refused to speak to her again until she'd gathered her things and made her way down the stairs. He re-set the alarm sensors at the bottom of the stairs. Getting to his feet, he handed her his jacket. "Here."

Relena looked a bit abashed, but she took it anyway, zipping it up over her coat, securing her book bag.

"What is it?" She asked, a bit muffled because of the helmet. She'd caught him staring.

"Nothing," he retorted quickly, swing on and started the bike. Relena slipped around behind him, snaking her arms across his chest. He could feel her fingers twisting in the fabric.

With that visor on she had reminded him of another time, back on Libra -

They pulled onto the street, and as he twisted the throttle, they sped towards the city, the wind whipping around them.

He couldn't help in showing off, maybe just a little bit. He loved the way she tensed around him as they revved forward, threading the bike through a small space between two cars on the highway. No, no one would suspect they could be so foolish.

His arms were numb from the wind by the time they parked outside the entrance to her hotel. Guards already manned the front door. When they saw the Foreign Minister wrapped in his Preventer's jacket, they didn't even ask for ID. He took her helmet and escorted her inside, a hand on her back. He walked her into the elevator, and up several floors.

"Evening, Foreign Minister," the Preventer's night guard nodded at her, and then caught his eye. "Sir."

Relena pulled out her key. "Give us a moment, if you would, Taylor."

"Of course ma'am."

She watched him go. "So," she said eventually in a small, but hopeful, voice.

"I'm meeting you at the Assembly building tomorrow," Heero murmured in his usual low-tone as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Her shoulders seemed to tense. "I know my own itinerary."

He raised an eyebrow at her back as she tossed her bag onto the chair by the door and ran a hand through her hair. He heard her sigh. Eventually she turned around, shrugging off his jacket and handing it over.

"Thank you, Heero," she gave him a small smile. Making sure the other agent didn't see, she tipped onto her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek, and then pulled away. "Goodnight." Retreating into the low light of her apartment, she gently closed the door.

He just stood there, the glittering gold room numbers staring dumbly back at him, before he turned silently on his heel and backtracked down the hall and towards the elevator. He passed the guard at the end of the hall.

What was that? He thought, punching the Lobby button a little more forcefully than necessary.

His own glowering image rebounded off the lift's mirrored walls as he stepped inside.

Why hadn't he said anything?

_Are you really, truly in love with me...?_

The _one_ time speaking his mind might have done some good.

Damn.

Damn it!

The woman waiting in the lobby jumped back with a squeak of fright as the doors dinged open the same time his fist connected against the wall of the elevator with a tremendous noise.

His soldier's composure snapped on just a moment later. Ignoring their looks as he pulled on his jacket, he took the steps back outside with an even stride. Relena's helmet was clipped on the back bar of the bike; he stared at it as he pulled his own down over his head, mind buzzing.

He needed to ride for a while. No, he needed to sleep.

If anything, he should catch up on paperwork.

But the Conference… he had to be awake tomorrow. Alert.

His growl of annoyance was drowned out by the revving engine.

Heero took the long way home, zipping around the darkened corners of the highway at alarming speeds, tipping so far over the banking curves that his knee nearly scraped the ground. Being that close to the fast-moving pavement- it made him feel alive.

Zechs had been right: there _were_ places beyond the battlefield for people like him; where his talents would prove useful. But it felt like the Preventers work was making him soft. Being around Relena was… changing him. She would think that was a good thing, of course. Then why…?

That was the problem with counting on dying before your eighteenth birthday. He hadn't been able to imagine what his life would be like now, protecting Relena day in and day out.

All the death he'd seen during the war, all the people he'd killed, and it was _this_ that felt like it was happening to somebody else.

It was almost eleven thirty when he walked through the door to his apartment, scowling. He kept the lights off. The place still smelled of Relena's expensive perfume.

Removing the gun out of the waistband of his jeans, Heero checked the safety before placing it down on the bedside table, pulling off his tank top. Falling onto the comforter he let out a tired huff of breath from his nose; as close to whining as he'd ever go.

He lay there for a few minutes, awake, listening to the hum of the fridge before reaching up to grab the gun, fingers curling around the grip as he slid it under the pillow. It felt familiar enough to coax him fitfully to sleep.

* * *

"They were swarming the car!"

"Well maybe if you weren't so _incompetent_ they wouldn't have scratched the paint!"

As his hand reached for the door handle of the staging-room area, Heero could hear Dorothy Catalonia- the President of the entire Earth Sphere's- snappish voice cut through.

He could imagine the look on Wufei's face. "Is it _possible_ they take issue with you driving a _gold plated_ _limousine?"_

Relena's soft voice lowered the tension. "There will always be protestors."

And a few religious zealots, he thought.

"They just want the media exposer so they can spread fear." The three occupants of the room, the President, Wufei, and Relena, the latter sitting at a table facing the door and reading her notes, all looked up as he stepped inside. He glanced at Dorothy. "Five minutes."

"Right." She stood bit straighter, pulling down on the hem of her button-up dress shirt. It always reminded him of their school uniforms, from when they were kids.

He blinked.

_When they were kids?_

Where the hell had that come from?

Relena rose from her chair, tapping her papers together. "Well, Dorothy, you're only introducing me. I better get ready, too."

"You'll do splendid as ever, Miss Relena," the woman crooned, clasping her hands, looking a bit wistful. "I shall prepare the crowd. Come on," she flicked her wrist at Wufei, who was glowering, "escort me."

They left, the former with an air of regality that had only intensified with her election, the latter begrudgingly.

Heero and Relena looked at each other.

"Well, I should-"

"Relena-"

"Yes?" She cut him off, her voice a kind of gasping breath. Her cheeks colored. "I'm sorry," she said quickly, looking away. Those words made him feel worse, if it were possible, than he felt before. "For yesterday. For assuming a bit too much, I think. I have a feeling I keep pushing you to do something you didn't want to."

She looks surprised when he let out a huff of laughter, one corner of his mouth quirking upward, showing a bit of teeth. He can't help it.

She bit her lip, looking more than a bit mortified. "You were always so careful. But your right, it's dangerous. For both of us. I could be forced out of office, and you, your anonymity might be compromised."

"I'm a Gundam pilot who now spends his life shadowing the former Queen of the World. If I was worried about my anonymity…"

Her shoulders relax, but he hasn't changed her mind so easily.

What's wrong with him? He'd been feeling uneasy all this time, and now he was practically making excuses for their behavior.

"Relena," he started in a low voice, "I-"

The radio in his ear chirped, _"Where is the Foreign Minister?"_

The room's so quiet, she hears it too.

"Duty calls," she whispers, holding up her speech.

He nodded curtly, frowning, and depressed the radio button. "Roger. Proceeding to the stage." They stare at each other for a good heartbeat or two. Eventually, he opens the door. "Minister."

Relena slips on her 'politician-face' as easily as he would switch into 'on-duty' mode. She takes a deep breath, her face serious as she walked past him into the hallway. As he moved to close the door behind them their shoulders brushed, but neither of them acknowledged the touch.

A few minutes later she emerged onstage amidst tumultuous applause; it was nearly as loud as the President's reception. Heero watched from just off-stage, obscured by the curtain. The people rose from their seats as Relena approached the podium, where Dorothy's outstretched arm beckoned. The blonde stepped back, now clapping as well. Relena is adored.

They look at her as a child of war- a young girl who was able to rise peacefully above the carnage and blood to give them hope.

All of humanity is weak, he use to think, including himself. Except Relena.

But she's only human. That kind of admiration took its toll.

"Thank you, everyone," her voice echoed about the room through the sound system. "All of you are here today because your passions have allowed humanity to continue its peaceful exploration of our wondrous universe. As you know, the Mars Terraformation Project began a few short years ago…"

He scanned the crowed, watching for any anomalous behavior.

" _You didn't tell them,"_ Wufei's voice comes over his earpiece in a whisper. Heero looked across the stage, to where the other Preventer agent stood at similar attention amidst the shadows. " _About the on-site staff possibly being compromised."_

"You've read Duo's report already. I'm impressed; I only submitted that this morning."

" _I had some time to kill."_

Dorothy did take a horrendous time getting ready for just about anything.

"Missing field work already?"

Chang grunted a reply. It was rhetorical.

"I didn't think it mattered," Heero continued, answering the original question while watching Relena. The way her chin thrust up a bit when she reached the parts in her speech about the true courage of man; of their duty to society. He knew what those people felt when they heard that commanding, ringing voice; how her words brought tears to their eyes. "They don't need to know every time their lives are threatened."

He left it at that. Besides, he couldn't say that Relena was aware. That would raise suspicion on how she'd heard; she wasn't given clearance to read documents of in-progress assignments.

"Untapped deposits of enriched bio-thurillium have been found in a number of excavation sites. Here and here," Relena turns to the side, arm pointed up to the giant screen behind the podium. "Of course, we are working on a number of studies to estimate the long-term environmental impacts of mining and enrichment…"

" _Left side clear."_

"Roger that. Ride side cl- wait a minute."

Wufei's voice takes on an edge when he says, _"What is it?"_

"In the front row. You can't see him from your position."

" _Do you want me to-"_

"Hold your post."

Heero had already un-holstered his weapon. His grip tightened, feet planted firm, shoulders relaxing down. Focus. There was a man, not a staff member but one of the dignitaries, philanthropists, or entrepreneurs that had been invited by the government. If he was invited, then why did he look so jumpy? It wasn't Ferox, he'd recognize the man from the surveillance photographs.

The man shifted in his seat, peering from side to side; slow but obvious. He looked scruffy; unkempt. One of the many unbalanced soldiers from the war that Ferox had recruited.

Heero narrowed his eyes, lifting his weapon just a few more degrees in precaution.

"Our on-site staff…" Relena's voice died.

His eyes flicked towards hers, and caught them staring right back, dropping to the gun and then up to his face. Her lips were parted mid-word. A rustle swept through the crowd.

Damn, he thought.

"Minister?" Dorothy's voice clipped curtly, gaze darting toward him, lips pursed, as if it were _his_ fault.

"I…" Relena cleared her throat, looking towards the ground, and then out at the crowd, turning to them once more and gripping the edges of the podium with both her hands.

She was silent for a few moments. Heero's gaze trailed from her to the man in the crowd.

"I suppose I am a little tense today, my apologies," Relena said. "There are protestors outside and I know that this has made people anxious about our cause. There are those who say our colonization of the red planet will lead us to another power struggle. They are frightened; memories of wars not long past are still seared fresh onto their memories. I know a great many people who have yet to leave those wars behind."

Heero's fingers around the gun's grip flexed.

"I, too, am haunted; in my dreams. The terror, the people; men dying on the battlefield and children dying in their homes. They call to me. I see their faces, and I hear can their screams." She takes a breath, looking solemn. His heart pounded. She hadn't told him? "We have come a long way in these five short years, but we are still recovering. We are still healing. But we are doing it _together_ ; because we have agreed that the peace and freedom of our people outweigh radicalism, greed, and… killing."

" _What is she doing?!"_ Wufei hissed.

Heero did not reply.

"We can only grow _together_ if we forge ahead. The war will never leave us unless we move on with our lives. This project, and the many projects I have spearheaded in the past, are designed to give veterans and civilians alike new leases on life. If we help our fellow man we have _nothing_ to fear."

"Liar!"

There was a collective gasp as the man in the front row jumped up towards the stage. "The Earth is in terrible danger! The meteor is bringing death and destruction! You must all repent your sins! _Your_ sins!" He brandishes his finger towards Relena.

Heero aimed the gun, lying just a bit of pressure upon the trigger. Relena gave him a look; he doesn't see what it is, but she sees the firearm.

"No, don't hurt him. Heero-"

The man rips his jacket open and there are wires; plastic packages.

Heero fires.

Several women in the crowd scream.

The man's head snaps back with a crack, and he crumples to the ground, detonator falling to the ground.

Panic ensued.

"Grab Ferox," Heero said immediately into his coms device.

" _Got it_ ," Duo's voice barely comes through as noise erupts both inside and out on the street.

"Wufei," he yells across the stage as he approaches the podium, "secure the building. And I need some crowd control." The other pilot had already nodded, disappearing into the back. Heero moved toward Relena; he had to protect the President and Foreign Minister.


	5. Chapter 5

"You didn't have to meet us here, you know. We were perfectly safe."

Quatre took the teacup Relena presented to him and glanced at Heero, who was standing by the doorway. "I had a feeling you two would be fine," he said with a smile. "Besides, I was on my way already. Still," he frowned, looking down at the swirling liquid, "it's been quite a day."

"A would-be bomber shot down in front of Foreign Minister? During a major conference? That's not what I want plastered all over the nightly news." Dorothy spoke from where she stood by the window, arms crossed, looking out at the swarm of police, Preventer agents, and the public, clogging the streets and steps of the Assembly building.

Heero had escorted the two women down one of the underground tunnels that connected many important buildings in the Capitol, used precisely in case of attack or other compromising event. They had made their way back to the Embassy as other agents contained the situation. Quatre had arrived not long after.

"There won't be an uprising, if that's what your worried about." At his voice, the three looked in Heero's direction.

"Oh the percentage of dissenters is quite low," Dorothy concedes, "but there are always those who will need to fight, and when there's no one else, the government becomes their enemy. We can't employ _all_ the former soldiers."

Relena was staring at him, the teacup clenched in her fingers. The sound of Quatre's sipping pierced the silence just as there came a knocking at the door. Before Heero, his back pressed against the door frame and pistol in hand, could ask for identification, Trowa's voice came through.

"It's Barton." He slipped inside, still dressed in his civilian clothing, Heero closing the door after him. Quatre perked up, plunking down his cup and getting to his feet.

"Trowa!"

The blonde embraced his friend, who patted his back gently, looking a bit abashed. Dorothy smiled coyly.

"When did you get here, Quatre?" They broke apart, but Quatre's hand lingered on Trowa's elbow.

"Just now-"

"Status report," Heero said shortly, before the happy reunion derailed the whole situation.

Trowa turned to stand at an easy attention. "Duo has Ferox in custody." He snorts after a moment, "I'm surprised the guy still has any of his teeth with the way Duo tackled him… Une has ordered him to be taken to HQ for questioning. Wufei is still calming down things on-site…"

"That man," Relena said sharply, loudly, drawing their attention. "The one who was shot. Is he-"

Perhaps it was the frequency of which he'd seen death, but Trowa's answer came with a wrongly-timed chuckle, as if her question were absurd. "Heero put a bullet in his head." A moment after it passed his lips he seemed to realize his mistake. Relena looked down again, a pained expression on her face. Heero frowned, an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. Trowa looked abashed. "I'm… sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Heero said harshly. Quatre's eyes went wide to stare at Relena. "Is that all?" Trowa nodded. "Right. Then you stay here. I don't want either the President or the Foreign Minister to leave this room until Wufei gives us the all-clear. I'll send Duo down to help clean up the mess out there."

Relena got to her feet. "Where are you going?" Her voice hid just a hint of desperation.

Heero frowned as she made her way over to him, Quatre pulling Trowa away into another conversation, pouring tea. Maybe the blonde meant to give them some privacy; that troubled him. It meant they assumed he and Relena had 'personal business'. That was the _opposite_ of what he'd been trying to convey for the last few years.

"Heero…"

"Hn?"

"You're leaving? Right now?" She stopped a few inches from him.

Her closeness was… difficult.

He nodded stiffly. "Yeah."

"You're not going to kill that Ferox man, are you?"

"I need to question him."

Her eyebrows drew together, shoulders squaring. "Torture is illegal now. In the first provision of our constitution-"

"I am aware of our _constitution_ , Relena; I heard the first draft. You read it to me, if you remember."

She flushed, and he was aware he might have said something wrong, but too bad. She was talking to him like he was some politician. He didn't like it.

Relena got quiet. "Your _tone_ , Heero-"

"I have to go."

" _Heero_ ," she hissed, reaching to grab the cuff of his jacket, but missed. 

He paused with his hand on the door. "Don't worry. I'm not going to kill him. Or torture him. I'm just going to ask him ask him a few questions." They locked eyes just for a second before he ducked outside and closed the door behind him.

The hallway was silent.

In a very rare moment Heero looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, taking a breath to calm him heart. He couldn't keep doing this. Straightening back up, he stalked off towards the hallway that would connect him to the Preventer's building.

* * *

"Well, shoot. He didn't put up much of a fight, to be honest."

"I'm glad you took him alive. It's nice to remind people we _do_ take prisoners once in a while."

For the first time, he spoke up. "Relena's life was in danger," he said, in his own defense. 

Both Duo and Lady Une turned from where they were watching Ferox, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the observation glass. The braided pilot looked stricken, but Une looked unsurprised that he'd been standing there.

"You're not as quiet as you once were," she said, like she was reading his mind. He glowered, coming out of the shadows. "But you heard everything?" He nodded.

"Sheesh," Duo took a backwards step, scratching the back of his head as Heero came up to the glass. "I didn't even hear you come inside."

"And you're suppose to be stealthy," the woman quipped.

"Like I haven't heard that one before…" Duo spoke out the side of his mouth.

"Has he said anything?" Heero interrupted.

"No," Une answered simply.

He moved his hand to the door handle.

"Wait-" Duo said.

It was only courtesy that he stopped, not curiosity.

"Do you want to play good-cop bad-cop?" The American looked hopeful. Heero could nearly seem himself in those wide eyes.

Hn, might be interesting…

"You ask the questions."

Duo blinked, hiking a thumb at his own chest. "Wait, me? What about you?"

"I'll listen. You'll talk. You're good at that at least."

The braided man pushed past him, grumbling, but pleased nonetheless. Heero cast a bored look in Une's direction before following Duo inside the interview room.

Ferox looked up when they entered. Duo took a seat across the table; Heero strode around to stand behind Ferox against the wall, arms crossed. The man followed him with his eyes, swiveling in his seat to watch. He neither looked scared nor angry, just intensely interested.

"Don't worry about him," Duo said flippantly, slapping a folder down on the table, leaning back in the chair and crossing his legs. Ferox turned in his seat to face the table once more.

He looked a bit older in person than in his photos. The brown hood of his drawn-up robe and his usual dark sunglasses had made Ferox hard to see on camera. But up close, the man cuffed to the chair looked like anything but some crazy cult leader. Shortly-shaven graying hair, lined face; maybe early forties- he looked like a tired politician.

"I'm allowed a lawyer, am I not?"

"Pifft," Duo cradled the back of his head with his arms, "you're not under arrest."

"Then I must be free to go."

Duo laughed up at the bank of overhead lights before uncurling himself to lean forward on the table, smile dropping from his face. When he spoke next his tone was neither kind nor humorous. "You're lucky you don't have a bullet in your brain. Like your friend."

"You killed Toman?"

"No. I did."

Ferox turned his head as far as he could to look again at Heero, whose arms were tightly crossed. The man's watery blue eyes searched his face before narrowing. Heero looked back, impassive, but… Was he imagining it, or was there some element of… recognition?

To their surprise the accused cult leader smiled, letting out a snort of laughter, turning around to eye Duo in a way that, Heero seeing his co-worker's confused face, confirmed it. This man knew who they were.

"I want to speak with him. Alone," Ferox tilted his head back towards Heero, "if you don't mind."

Duo's mouth hung open. "I don't know who the fuck you think you are-"

"He's Relena Peacecraft's bodyguard, is he not?"

"Foreign Minister Darlian," Heero corrected, walking around the table to get a better look at him.

"Of course," Ferox replied, following him with his eyes, "my apologies." He sniffed. Now," his finger pointed to Duo, looking at Heero expectantly. "Put the children out so the adults can talk business… Alpha."

The room suddenly felt very, very cold.

"Maxwell, get out."

Duo paused where he was launching himself over the table in response to the insult. "But-"

" _Now_."

There was a wrapping on the glass. Une. Duo's face scrunched as he pushed away from the table with such force that it scraped along the floor in Ferox's direction, shoving into the man's personal space. He sent Heero a withering look before wrenching the door open and slamming it behind him.

Heero pulled the table back and pushed the chair in, taking a seat. He un-holstered his weapon, and made sure Ferox saw him take the safety off, before placing it on the table with his hand wrapped firmly around the grip, trigger finger lying just off to one side. The prisoner watched with that same mild fascination; how a child would regard the strange goings-on of animals at the zoo.

"If you ever put Relena in danger again," Heero said softly, dangerously, "I will put a bullet in you. Not in your head," he lifted the gun barrel off the table, directing it lazily at the man's face, "in your gut." His aim traveled down. "You will bleed out. Slowly."

"Oh, _that_." Ferox rolled his eyes. "She was in no _danger_. There was no _bomb_. You'll find the man you shot was wearing nothing at all that could have exploded."

"Then why-"

"Might you un-cuff my hands? I wish to sit a bit more comfortably..."

"No."

Ferox licked his lips, growing bored. "Isn't all this violence against your client's ideals?"

"I'm not a pacifist. And you said it yourself, she's a client. I don't have to agree with her to protect her."

"Mmmhmm…"

"What did you mean," Heero continued, "about there not being a bomb."

"It was a simple PR stunt."

A PR stunt that got someone killed. He'd murdered another innocent person.

Damn it.

"What did you mean about calling me Alpha."

"That was your name for a time, was it not?"

"A long time ago."

"Ten years is not so long…"

"There've been two wars in those ten years. And you've served in neither." Heero nodded towards the document files slightly spread upon the table. "You appeared out of no where and yet you know my codename from my training. Not many people with that information," he caught Ferox's eyes, "are still alive."

The man smiled, shrugging his shoulders as high as he could with his hands still bound. "I was part of the original Operation Meteor." Heero snorted. He didn't believe it. "And I knew your father."

At that his breath caught in his throat. "Then you worked for OZ."

Ferox cracked a wide grin, a small chortle in the back of his throat growing into full-fledged laughter. And it was direct at… him.

Heero grit his teeth.

"Oh yes," Ferox crowed. " _Odin Lowe_. Your _father_! Oh my, oh my, Alpha, you're sense of humor has not changed that's for certain." The man shook his head in mock disbelief. "So, tell me, what are you going by now if not Alpha or Zero One? When you gunned down that poor, innocent protestor I might have heard some other name…"

"Hn, did you?"

"I have ears you know," Ferox whispers, looking round the room, "in places you would not expect. Might I have heard the pretty little Minister call you… Heero?" At the look that question received, Ferox drew the appropriate conclusion. "Oh that _is_ an interesting development. I can't believe Null gave you _that_ name! It's too funny! What a old prankster!"

Heero's free hand came down upon the table, shocking Ferox into silence. The ringing metal sound faded away before Heero said calmly, "I'm still asking you questions."

The man smiled, sitting back, "Oh yes." But he was slightly breathless, maybe a little bit scared. "Please, continue."

"If you were involved in Operation Meteor, why have I never heard of you?"

Ferox looked a bit wistful. "My arm of the Operation was cut short before the launch date. We failed. I went into hiding, of course. There was going to be a war after all…"

"You failed? At what?"

"Tell me," the man leaned forward against the cuffs, "have you heard of the approaching meteor? Of the world's changing?" When he didn't receive a response, Ferox continued. "You must repent, Heero Yuy, for all your past sins. Accept the meteor's power into your heart and you can be free again."

"Again?" Heero slid the gun off the table, holstering it. "I was never free."

"Ahh, now you're getting somewhere. But there is a place for you… with us; the Children of the Meteor."

"Hn. You're trying to recruit me now?"

"I don't need to."

The man was playing games again. Heero didn't have time for this. He stood from his chair, adjusting his jacket before gathering up the files on the table.

Ferox watched him with a disappointed expression. "What, you're leaving already? But we have so much to catch up on… So much to discuss."

"I'm done discussing with you."

"Then maybe send Ms. Darlian in, would you?"

On the way to the door, he paused. Without turning back, Heero spoke. "She has nothing to say to you, and nothing you have to say is of any interest to her."

"Oh I don't know about that," Ferox crooned, "I'm sure I can give her lots of details concerning your… former life…"

Before he had time to regulate his reaction, the files had dropped to the floor and he was striding across the room towards the bound man, gripping the front of his robes and partially hoisting him up off the chair, free hand swinging back in a clenched fist, aiming for the man's face.

Une and Maxwell's voices spilled into the room as they burst through the door.

Ferox spoke quickly but quietly, so that no one else could hear. "I doubt Miss Darlian would be pleased if her lover had any _more_ blood on his hands."

His fist stopped within a hairsbreadth of the man's cheekbone.

"Heero!"

"Yuy, that's enough!"

The room was quiet, tense, before he shoved the man back down, Ferox sprawling into the chair. Une and Duo looked on as he turned on his heel and stalked back through the doorway, stepping over the spilled papers without much notice. He could hear Ferox's laughter bouncing after him down the hallway.

* * *

In the dark of one of the unoccupied conference rooms- he never really had an 'office'; he never sat down long enough to require one- the glow from a Preventer's computer terminal illuminated Heero's face.

He was still… upset. If you could call it that.

His hands skimmed across the keys.

_O-d-i-n_

_L-o-w-e_

He pressed the 'return' key and up came his father's info file.

He couldn't count the number of times he'd poured over this page. He did so again, but there was still no mention of anyone named Xen Ferox.

He tried ' _Doctor J Null'_.

Nothing.

He even pulled up his own file, and his mother's- what was left of it. Part of her OZ information packet had been corrupted.

Not a single mention of the man.

He searched every document on anyone he could think of who had _any_ kind of affiliation with Operation Meteor and didn't turn up a damn thing.

Heero let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair. He sat up a bit straighter when the door to the room opened and Trowa poked his head inside.

"Hey," the man said, opening the door wider. "Duo told me what happened."

That braided idiot and his _fucking_ big mouth. Heero sighed again, but it was less out of nerves that time and more out of barely-contained rage. "Aren't you supposed to be protecting the President?"

"Wufei is-"

" _Wufei_ is supposed to be on _crowd duty_. Does the entire Agency fall apart when I'm not there to direct it?" His tone was harsh, more so than he had intended, but he was still feeling off-kilter and angry. He barely registered that he was calling them all incompetent, and for Gundam pilots, that would be quite an insult.

The brow over Trowa's visible eye shot up, but otherwise he looked completely unfazed. "Protecting the President? Do you have any idea what time it is? Relena and Dorothy just went to dinner with Quatre. Wufei took care of the crime scene hours ago. How long have you been up here?"

Heero blinked at him for a moment before pulling out his cell phone, checking the time.

_1835_

"Shit."

"Yeah. She was pretty angry."

His head snapped up. "Huh?" But he knew exactly who Trowa had meant.

"Lady Une wants your full report by tomorrow morning. She's… unhappy too, to say the least."

"Let me guess," he said, "They didn't find a single explosive on the body."

Trowa shook his head. "He was wired. He even had a detonator. But the C4 was just putty, like the kind from that children's toy. I don't think the kid knew it was fake; he was fully prepared martyr himself."

Then Ferox knew Heero would shoot regardless. It was a set-up. But why? What was Ferox getting at? Did he _want_ to be taken into custody?

"Has Maxwell been able to extract any more information?"

"Not really. The guy keeps trying to convert anyone who's within earshot. They're holding him in temporary cell. You're the only one who was able to get anything out of him." Trowa paused for a long moment before asking, "Is it true? He knows who you are?"

"He knows who we all are. He says he was part of Operation Meteor but that something went wrong, so he fled."

Trowa came forward. "Is _that_ true?"

Heero glanced at the computer. "According to what I can find on him, which is absolutely nothing, he doesn't even exist."

The other pilot dropped something with a _thwunk_ to the desk. "Maybe this will help us."

Heero pulled the object towards him- a small leather book. "What is it?"

"Ferox's personal ledger. I got it off him when Duo had him pinned. I was hesitant to give it to you…"

"Hn?"

Trowa smiled thinly. "Because you need to rest. You look like hell. Go home."

"I'm on duty tomorrow…"

"I'll take your shift."

"But the report…"

"What's Une going to do? Fire her best employee? Now you're just making excuses. Go _home_ , Heero Yuy."

A muscle in his jaw tightened, but Heero knew he had been beaten. He might as well pack up and get some sleep. He took the book with him, thanking Trowa on his way out.

Driving back through town it was getting dark, but he couldn't help taking a little detour. He idled his motorbike on the other side of the street across from the up-scale hotel Quatre always stayed in when visiting the capitol. If they had all gone to dinner together, there was no doubt Relena was inside.

His leg was getting tired propping up the bike, but he waited just a little bit longer. Part of him wished she'd come outside, spot him, and they could talk. He didn't know what he would say, but he wanted a chance to say it. Relena did not appear, and he did not park the bike to go inside. He drove home. 

Walking into his apartment felt like stepping off onto another planet. So much had happened that day; his adrenaline had been running full-tilt and he was just now starting to crash.

He chugged a glass of water, stripping off his shirt and tossing it onto the chair, digging the toe of one boot under the heel of the other, popping off his shoes. He paused to get another glass, drinking it down in bug gulps before kicking off his jeans along with everything else.

Heero didn't even bother to grab something to eat, although he was faintly aware that he might be hungry. He had been taught to suppress such urges when necessary, so he ignored the small gnawing feeling and collapsed into bed. It was a testament to how truly exhausted he was when he fell asleep almost immediately after his head touched the pillow, not even bothering to retrieve his gun from its belt holster upon the ground.

For many years his dreams were not enjoyable. During the war he either didn't sleep long enough to have them, or they would be nightmares. Faces of people he'd killed. Buildings burning. Terror. After serving as Relena's bodyguard, Heero might have thought he'd moved on to more pleasant scenery, but that night, amid his swirling, troubled mind, he saw the face of the man he'd gunned down at the Assembly building. How the wild eyes went wide, jaw slacked; his look of slight surprise as the bullet sunk into his brain.

In the dream it felt like he was moving through heavy water. Relena bolted toward him on the stage, calling out for him to stop, but he did not. He fired. Again and again. Over and over.

He could hear Ferox from some unseen place, overlaying the repeating scene of violence with maddening laughter. It filled his head, making him stumble, the gun dropping. In those moments the bomber jumped up from his seat once again, scrambling towards the Foreign Minister.

No! He had to protect her!

The floor rushed up to meet him; he had fallen to his knees.

Across the stage he could see the man pull Relena towards him, ripping open his bulging vest, detonating the explosives.

The ball of fire tore through them.

Heero woke abruptly, body jolting.

In the quiet heaviness of his breathing he heard a strange sound. Rustling. Footfalls.

He quieted, going on full alert.

Someone was in his apartment.

Opening one eye he could see it was light out, maybe late morning. His head was turned away towards the wall; he couldn't see who the intruder was without alerting said intruder. Very slowly his hand inched up the bed sheet to disappear under the pillow, going for his pistol.

But it wasn't there.


	6. Chapter 6

Heero remembered he'd dropped the gun belt to the floor the previous night and only half noticed; he'd been so tired.

Damn.

His hand slipped out from under the pillow and down next to his chest, then hip, reaching over the edge of the bed to the mattress, fingers closing on the handle of the combat knife taped to the underside of the frame. He had no real intention of killing anyone, but the blade was long enough to insight real fear. A sufficient deterrent.

He waited one rise and fall of his chest.

And then another.

In a single fluid motion he rolled over to one side and pulled the knife from its sheath, hitting the ground on all fours, springing up and whirling around with the weapon clutched in one hand; brandished.

But all that greeted him were black-slack clad legs sticking out of the mini-fridge, the top half of whoever obscured by the open plastic door.

"The only thing in here is soda…" came a familiar voice. An American voice. Fucking Duo Maxwell. Of course. "… And an ice tray," he finished after a moment, brandishing the object over the top of the fridge. "An _empty_ ice tray. What the hell do you even _eat_?" Heero was silent, glowering. "Huh?!"

"Inside the cupboard." Heero lowered the knife. "Military rations…" he finished lamely.

There came an exasperated sigh. "You live in the _capitol city_ of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation and you're eating old MREs?"

"They're not expired," he shrugged.

"Pifft!"

Duo straightened up, swinging the mini-fridge closed in one motion, turning to look across the room. He was suddenly a deer caught in headlights as he jumped backwards, a hand flying up to cover his eyes. "Holy shit!"

Heero stared for a moment with a blank expression. Eventually he deadpanned, "Why are you in my house?"

"Man, will you put on some clothes or something? G _eez!_ "

A muscle in Heero's jaw twitched, feeling a bit flushed. He stalked over to the dresser and shot a cool look towards the kitchenette as he tugged on a pair of jeans. Duo had turned his back, braid swinging, fingers drumming over the countertop. From there Heero noticed two brown paper bags perched next to the mini-fridge.

Hn…

"Want to know who sent me?" Duo said in an almost sing-song voice, rustling through he first parcel.

"No."

"Aw, come on."

"You want me to guess?"

"That _is_ the idea."

"No."

The American let out a flustered sigh, looking a back over his shoulder to where Heero was pulling down a green tank top, and turned to lean on the small breakfast bar. "You're no fun. You know that, right?"

If it were anyone else he would have been livid. All right, he was livid anyway, but Duo was the only one besides Relena who could push him this far without fear of actual bodily retribution. It had something to do with his… affection for the man. Kindred spirited.

And Heero had two guesses about _who_ had prompted Duo's arrival, but he wasn't about to indulge in the conversation. Either it was Relena or Une. Or maybe Quatre, because it was _Quatre_. Okay, three guesses.

"I'll repeat. Why are you here?"

"Okay, you win," Duo said, ignoring his friend's haughty tone, ticking off his fingers as he went through the list. "So Trowa told Quatre he was taking your shift today, and Quatre told Relena when they were finishing dinner, and _she_ asked _me_ if there was anything wrong but of course _I_ had no idea, sooo… It's actually a trick question. I came here myself." Heero shook his head in disgust as he picked the handgun up off the floor, checking the safety before he placed it down on the bedside table. They were like a goddamn knitting group. At least Wufei hadn't been sucked in. Yet. "I brought supplies," Maxwell finished with a certain tone to his voice.

He grunted. "Supplies?"

"For our investigation!" The man grinned. "You _do_ have the book Trowa gave you, right?" Heero nodded slowly. "Well then, we got some work to do! I have beer…" He rooted around the paper bag and extracted a six-pack of glass bottles.

"We can't drink when on duty."

"Man, in case you haven't noticed, we're not _on_ duty."

A muscle in Heero's temple twitched. He didn't bother to ask how Duo had managed to slip past his sensors and booby traps. Maybe it was an attempted display of prowess, from all the recent teasing.

"What time is it?" He asked instead as he pulled up the chair with his jacket slung over the back and extracted the small leather book from the inside pocket, sitting down.

"Couple minutes after noon," came the reply, along with the _pop-fizz_ of two bottles being opened. "Just in time for a drink without being a drunk." There was a snort of laughter as Maxwell giggled at his own joke. Heero rolled his eyes to the ceiling in silent protest.

"Here."

He took the chilled bottle as it was pressed into his hand and allowed himself a small sip. "Huh," he looked at the label, "North American."

Duo took a seat in the chair opposite. "S'good?"

"Hn," he replied, taking another, larger swig. Duo beamed at the 'compliment'.

Well, it was time to get down to business, wasn't it? Heero pushed the bottle away on the table and pulled the elastic band off from around Ferox's book. The leather cover was worn, a little ratty, stained in places and straining with shoved-in scraps of paper.

"You took this off him?"

"Trowa did." Duo cracked his knuckles. "I was too busy implanting my fist into Ferox's face."

Heero thumbed through the pages; they were rice paper thin. Tiny, black writing filled every inch, cover to cover. Unreadable black writing; little squiggles and lines peppered with dots of various sizes.

Duo sucked down a big gulp of beer. "It's in code."

"I see that," Heero murmured, thumb tracing over the abstract, geometric designs that overlapped the text. They were precise, either created with the use of a ruler or by one steady hand, only they made little sense. It all seemed completely random.

"Any ideas?"

Heero started from the beginning, on the inside of the front cover as his mind flicked through a seemingly endless list of combinations- military encrypting and old civilian languages now long dead. With a huff he finally admitted, "It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

Duo's eyebrow quirked up as he slouched down in his chair, legs extended under the table, "Well that's a first."

Heero shot him a look. "Ferox must have created it himself." He turned a few more pages.

Besides the 'words' and thick lines, once in a while they found full-page unfinished sketches. Most of the drawings were abstract; circles within circles, but others looked like vague portraits or cityscapes; planets and weird perspectives of space craft and buildings.

A page of writing turned over to reveal another face, and Heero froze.

Duo craned over to see what had caused the pause and let out a low whistle. "Man, that is creepy…" He pointed a finger. "Is that you?"

Heero's voice came out a bit weaker than he would have liked. "How should I know?"

"Because it looks like you."

He grit his teeth. He didn't want to admit it… but it did just a bit. It was one eye, half a face; a jaw line and a small flop of hair that blended into more indecipherable text, but still… how could it possibly be? He'd never met Ferox in his life.

Coincidence. There was simply _zero_ evidence to the contrary…

" _I was part of the original Operation Meteor_ … _and I knew your father."_

He cleared his throat, quickly flipping to a different page. "What exactly did Ferox say during her sermons?"

Leaning back, Duo closed his eyes and gesticulated with his hands. "Oh, ya know, just a bunch of crazy-man mumbo-jumbo." He took on a mocking voice, " _The meteor is coming to reap humanities sins! Repent and you'll be saved!_ All that kind of jazz."

"Nothing specific?"

"I dunno, man."

Heero glowered. "You can't remember?" he shot accusatorily.

Duo's eyes snapped open and he threw up his hands. "I told you he was tracking something but you said to forget it! If there's something concrete it's in _there."_ He pointed to the book, got to his feet, and retreated once again towards the grocery bags. "Don't worry, I didn't come unprepared." He came back and plopped down a ream of paper and two markers onto the table.

"What's that." It wasn't really a question. He knew the answer. Heero gestured towards the laptop, "We can use the algorithmic-"

"Pifft!" Duo cracked his knuckles, cutting him off. "We're doing this old school style!"

Heero didn't bother with a retort, although his disapproval would have been obvious by his expression. Nonetheless, he picked up one of the pens, propped open the book with one of the bottles, and slid a piece of paper towards him.

More than a few drinks each and some hours later they were no closer to figuring out what Ferox had written. An empty pizza box lay forgotten near the trashcan. Duo had ordered, but conveniently, had also misplaced his wallet. Heero paid.

"I think I've finally figured it out." The American's voice was muffled, arms thrown up over his face where he lay belly-up and wrong-way-round at the bottom of Heero's bed. His shoes dangled over one side, eyes closed against the dozen or so pages with half-cocked translations taped above him on the low ceiling. "It's in some alien language."

Heero tipped his chair back onto two legs and let out a short breath through his nose.

"No, seriously!"

"It's much more likely the man was insane. _Is_ insane," he amended.

Their whole investigation was starting to feel a bit pointless.

Eyeing his own failed attempts at decoding, Heero tilted his head back, bringing his new… third? beer to his lips. He was just a bit tipsy. It was no small annoyance that Maxwell could drink him under the table. Only Wufei had the talent to keep up with the American.

Alcohol, if he remembered correctly, lead to slips in judgment, and following almost routinely from point to point, his mind wandered back to his favorite distraction: Relena.

The way she had looked at him when he left to interrogate Ferox…

She was infuriating. Always had been, and, he was suspecting, always would be. She was at first too clingy; her infatuation of him had been intense. And he hadn't ignored her to protect her either, not in the beginning. He had genuinely wanted to be rid of her. And then, when he did speak his mind, took an interest in her enough to criticize some of her opinions, she had rebuked him.

There was no pleasing that woman.

And so it went. He'd taken the job of protecting her and she'd been open, happy, but he knew it was dangerous. He resisted… and then gave in; a willing participant with the gnawing feeling that they would have to pay for their transgressions.

_pay for their sins_

They were always missing each other.

They always got on the wrong train, went in opposite directions, or got off on the wrong platform from one another.

He took another gulp of drink.

They were never in sync, not really, and yet they mirrored each other so perfectly; gravitated towards each other almost effortlessly.

Swig number two.

They were binary stars whose orbits never fully aligned.

The beer was down to foam now.

It was maddening, he thought hotly, and stared down to the leather book on the table. Just like Ferox's stupid code. Pieces of a jigsaw he could never solve. Circles within circles. Players in some unseen design. Intersecting points of…

He leaned forward, the legs of his chair coming back to the floor with two loud _clunks_.

"A puzzle."

Duo sat up. "What was that? H-hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

But Heero had already ripped off the cover's binding and tossed it away, revealing the glued together threads holding the pages together. Jumping up, ignoring the way his body titled against the table, just barely off-balance, Heero took the knife from the dresser and carefully ran the blade down the length of the spine, cutting away the dried adhesive.

"The circles," he said in a concentrated tone, "orbiting each other."

Duo let out a low whistle, sliding off the bed and taking his empty bottle with him. "That's it man, you've finally lost it." He made a swooping sound. "Right out into deep space."

The book split in his hands like an apple cleaved in two. Heero passed half the text over to the American, plus the knife. "Separate out any of the pages with the thick lines over the text." He moved towards the kitchen, grabbing another serrated blade.

"What about the pictures?"

"Any page with broad designs."

Brow furrowed, tongue stuck between his teeth, the braided man began to carefully pull away each page, separating some into one pile, and some into another.

It took them nearly fifteen minutes to filet the entire ledger, careful not to tear any of the pages. The stacks of discards were passed off onto one of the chairs as the pair spread out the remaining scraps out on the table's surface.

"Oh yeah," Duo said immediately as he made the connection. He pulled two pages together from random spots, rotating one by a few degrees. The sweeping lines on the first page, when overlapped, continued unbroken down onto the next. "Shit. I don't believe it. They fit together." He gave Heero a quizzical look. "How'd ya ever figure that one out?"

Heero shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. He'd stared at the images for so long his brain had automatically begun categorizing them. From then on it was just a matter of recognizing the pattern. He told Duo so, who looked a mix of disbelief and amusement.

"That's nuts, man."

"We were trying to translate the wrong part. It's very likely the text has no meaning at all, just a way for the images to remain encoded…" he trailed off, annoyed and a bit loose-lipped thanks to the alcohol.

Duo pulled the free chair around, sitting down on it backwards, and went to work. Heero left him for the kitchenette, pouring himself some water. If he didn't do something soon he was going to have one horrible headache.

A few moments later came a breathless, "No way…"

He swallowed a gulp of water. "Hn? What is it?"

"Come have a look at this."

The majority of pieces had been arranged and it looked like…

"That's Earth."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Here, what are these?"

Heero peered over to another group of pages, looking at where Duo was pointing. After a silent moment he found the pattern, and pulled three pages together. "The moon?"

"Naw, it's too small. Plus, look, it's following a dotted line. It starts way out but… kinda seems like it'll end up here." Duo tapped his finger at a small point on the Earth's surface, which was accompanied by roughly drawn latitude and longitudinal lines.

With that down, the rest of the pages seemed to fall into place. By the time they were done and stepped back, the image that had emerged was more or less complete. On the left side towards the bottom, the Earth's surface burgeoned upwards, the major constellations framing a small flying object barreling in from the top right.

"It's a map," Heero said finally.

Duo gave him a sideways glance. "You sure?"

Heero narrowed his eyes, finger tracing over the triangulating points denoting the object's possible trajectory. If he were right there could be no denying it, the 'meteor' would become caught in the planet's gravitational pull.

In a low tone, he murmured, "But where is it going to land?"

With hands planted firmly on his hips, Duo's tone was far more serious that usual. "More importantly, _what_ is it?"

As far as Ferox was concerned it was a meteor, but how was that possible? Like Trowa said, it's flight path was too smooth, and the object almost too small. It would certainly burn up in the atmosphere.

"Is Wufei at headquarters today?"

Duo blinked. "Uh, yeah."

"Send him a picture of this," he ordered sternly as he opened up his laptop.

Maxwell had to stand on one of the chairs to get a good aerial shot while Heero opened the Preventer's terminal and logged on to the satellite network. His days of hacking, it seemed, were long over. All he had to do to view the ESUN space surveillance directory was input his password. He began combing through the cache of recent images from both terran and colony satellites. If there _was_ an object hurling towards them through space, it should have been picked up _somewhere_.

A few moments later and Duo's obnoxious ringtone pierced the silence.

"It's Wufei."

"Put him on speaker."

The phone chimed.

"Hey hey, what up Wu-man!"

" _Maxwell,"_ Wufei snapped tersely. _"What the hell did you just send me? It looks like some child's art project…"_ He paused a moment. _"Or_ _ **your**_ _art project_."

Duo's face scrunched, about to retort, but Heero cut in.

"I want a cross reference of that image with the Preventer's GIS."

If Wufei was surprised to hear his voice, he didn't acknowledge it. _"Right. I'll call you back."_ The line went dead, and the room buzzed with a pregnant kind of silence.

Eventually, Duo let out a giant sigh, shaking his head, taking his beer over to the brown bag of empties. Heero swung back his own liquor but found the bottle disappointingly empty.

There were too many unknowns about the situation for his liking. It made an unusual knot of apprehension twist in the pit of his stomach.

Could the 'meteor' be a holdover from their original Operation? Ferox said he'd abandoned his post as a dissenting scientist… so his experiments had been scrapped… right?

What if the object crashed to Earth and released some chemical agent? What it was a bomb? Somewhere in the back of his mind a small voice spoke up, _What if it was a Gundam?_

But that was crazy. It couldn't be. The Gundams were destroyed. There's been an entire ESUN purge of all mobile suits once the Mariemaia incident had died down. Hell, if an in-space construction company wanted to purchase something as simple as a pilot-driven welding unit they had to pass numerous, rigorous inspections.

Instead of Duo's phone buzzing, there came a tinny chime on the computer's video link. As Heero clicked the icon, Wufei's low-lit office came into view.

Heero gave a curt nod. "Do you have it?"

Wufei's lip curled. _"Have what, exactly? You're aware that, according to the computer, there's nothing up there. No sign of any flying object on the infrared radar or the satellite. Aside from all the regular space junk, of course. All I've got is Maxwell's collage."_

"It's not _my_ collage! Geez! It's-"

" _But,"_ Wufei's voice lowered conspiratorially, _"if someone_ _ **were**_ _able to fly something into ESUN space undetected, and according to the chart you sent me, I was able to get a rough estimate of where it might land. And when."_

Heero was silent, but his brows drew together in concentration as a separate image macro came over the link-up.

Duo clucked his tongue. "What is that? The desert?"

" _Northern Sudan."_

"But there's nothen' out there!"

" _I'll send over the exact coordinates."_ The text filtered in through the chat window. _"It like we've got a little over thirty hours before the 'meteor' enters the atmosphere. Oh, and Une wants to talk to you,"_ he said pointedly at Heero, a hint of humor curling his words.

Heero nodded, but on the inside he groaned. It would be about the shooting no doubt, and his poor performance in the interrogation. Wonderful. He certainly wasn't looking forward to it. "We'll talk soon."

" _Roger that."_

The video cut off. Heero opened the mail application.

There was an uncomfortable squeeze to his chest, and when he spoke, it almost sounded as if the words were coming from someone else. Hollow.

"I'm sure this is all just a false alarm."

Duo scoffed, eyeing him strangely. "You wish."

He did.

Before, during the war, he had felt little in the way of apprehension when new battles loomed on the horizon. He had known, very well, that those he knew and eventually would called 'friend' could be taken away from him; by either their deaths or by his. But he had moved forward, taking the paths his head and heart told him were his destiny, despite any possible consequences.

Had those consequences now become too great? Was he being stubborn? Blind?

Was he hesitant to act because he had become attached to the life he was now leading? Before he had nothing to hold on to; now he felt anchored, and it made him uneasy.

"We need to be there when that thing lands. We need to assemble a team."

"Pretty sure we got that covered."

Heero couldn't help the smirk. "I suppose you're right." He typed up a short memo and CCd it to the other pilots. And to Une. Including the Commander might garner him some much-needed points.

_-Attn: 02;03;04;05;Gold_

_-Unidentified object will penetrate Earth's atmosphere in two days time at approximately 1500._

_-Requesting all agents and affiliates present at the following coordinates:_

_-20.076570, 26.718750_

_-Transport to be arranged at the South Peninsula Private Airfield at 0800._

_-Be prompt._

Quatre would have little problem letting them borrow his plane and his tarmac.

He hit ' _send'._

Duo tipped up onto the balls of his feet, hands shoved into his pockets. "So… what do ya wanna do now?"

"Well," Heero said as he closed the computer, "we need to report in to headquarters tomorrow morning."

The American sent a dubious glance at the bag of empty beer bottles. "And I ain't driving right now that's for sure." He seemed to flush. "Can I-?"

"I'll take the floor."

"Great, man, thanks…. another drink?"

"Hn."

He was already in for a penny…

They proceeded to watch a myriad of shit programming that somehow counted as television, but changed to the ESUN news broadcast at six. The plastic-looking woman onscreen was giving a bit of an update on yesterday's incident. It had at first been called another assassination attempt on the Foreign Minister's life, or maybe the President's, but Relena had apparently made a brief press conference earlier that morning.

The newsroom cut to the recorded statement. Relena was standing on the steps of the Embassy building, speaking into an array of microphones sprouting up from the bottom of the screen. Her hair was pulled back; she looked tired. Beautiful... but tired.

" _I want to make it very clear that neither myself nor the President were in any immediate danger."_

Behind her left shoulder stood a stoic, sunglass-clad agent with sweeping bangs. Upon seeing Trowa, Heero felt a twinge of shame. It should have been _him_ up there…

" _If you weren't in any danger,"_ the voice of a reporter came over the mics, " _why is the perpetrator now dead?"_

" _I'm afraid I cannot comment on-"_

" _We've also heard rumors that an unknown number of protestors were taken into custody and are currently being held without being charged. Would you care to comment on_ _ **that**_ , _Foreign Minister?"_

Relena took a small swallow, nodding her head down just a fraction, but Trowa intervened, leaning forward to whisper something very quietly in her ear while covering the microphone. She blinked.

" _I'm afraid I don't have time for hearsay,"_ she said finally. _"But we have no evidence that leads us to believe the public is in any danger. Thank you for your time,"_ she finished, smiling at the camera like she was smiling at him. The squabble of reporters cut off as the news station switched back to the anchor.

" _Minister Darlian declined to-"_

Duo shook his head where he sat on the edge of the bed, a sideways grin flashing a bit of teeth. "Unflappable. That woman really is something. Oh. Damn. That reminds me." He took out his phone, hopping down onto the floor as he hit speed dial. Heero could hear the line ringing faintly as Duo strode across the room towards the front door. Just as the American's hand depressed the handle, someone must have picked up. He heard him say in a soft, almost tender voice, "Hey, hey, Hilde babe," before he stepped out onto the front landing, door closing gently behind him.

Heero's own phone weighed heavily in his pocket. He took it out and turned it over, staring down at the screen. He imagined Relena's name and cell number flashing back up at him, but she never tried to call him when away on a mission, no matter how worried she might be.

But at that very moment there was the strongest urge to call her; to hear her voice from the other side say his name in that excited, breathless tone. He wanted to make sure she knew he was sorry, and that he was fine. But even stronger was the desire to protect her. It was a kneejerk reaction, he knew, but giving her as little information as possible was the best way to keep her safe.

And so he did nothing.

Heero exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he's been holding and pocketed the phone once more.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Bright and early the next morning, they flashed their badges at the Preventer's building side-door sensor. Heero tipped up his sunglasses for the retina scan, inwardly wincing from the sunlight. Now he remembered why he hated beer.

"Welp," Duo bounced on his heels, obviously unaffected as they rode the elevator upwards, "guess I'm not leaving for space any time soon." He thought for a moment, and then added, "Not that I'm complain'n or anything. That was the best sleep I've had in _weeks_."

"Hn," Heero replied, stretching his neck to one side, trying to ignore the headache. Easy for him to say. He wasn't on the floor. The lift made a pleasant 'ding' as they glided to a stop; the bell sounded more cheerful than he felt.

Duo waved as the doors open, "Have fun." He didn't even try and hide his cheeky little grin.

Heero shot him a withering look as he exited- although, like the alcohol, it didn't seem to put a dent in Maxwell's demeanor.

The door slid shut as he walked the length of the hallway towards the corner office. Une's office. It had a spectacular view of the downtown on two sides, but he doubted they'd be enjoying the scenery that morning

Unlike the rest of the Preventer's head staff, Une did not have a secretary. He rapped on the door a couple of times, all without answer, and so he let himself in. He slipped through and closed the door behind him.

The office looked the same as ever. Two broad windows, a simple oak tabletop with computer, holoscreen, tablet, writing ledger… photograph. No. Photo _graphs_. One he knew very well and one that looked… new. The first was a gilded frame, a snapshot of Treiz from his stint at the Academy. The man looked boyish, high-spirited; idealistic and foolish.

"Humph." It was an amused sigh that accompanied the small upward quirk to a corner of his mouth.

Triez.

Heero picked up the second picture as he eased down into the visitor's chair. A twelve year-old Mariemaia Kushrenada sat astride a horse, helmet tipped down to one side and a self-confident smirk twisting her lips. Remarkably similar to her father.

A soft yet commanding voice rang out behind him. "That was during our trip to North America."

Heero turned in his chair as Une swung the door closed behind her, stepping inside. Save the new lines pulling at her eyes and mouth, she looked the same as during the War. Perhaps a few grey strands here and there; the Lady made no effort to disguise her experience. She jostled the papers in her hand.

"The girl's grown," he said as he placed the frame back. "She's healed."

Une smiled. "Well enough. You'd notice if you came by to say hello once in a while. Relena does," she added, coming around the table and dropping the stack of documents onto its surface.

Heero frowned.

"You wanted to see me."

"I did," Une nodded to the paperwork as she folded down into her chair. "The interrogation left me little time to debrief you. I'll assume you watched Relena's press conference."

His voice was low. "She lied to the public. She said she wasn't in danger."

"That's all true," the woman replied. "There were no explosives and as far as we know, the public is safe. Saying anything more would compromise our ongoing missions, Relena knows that."

"I don't understand."

A line appeared between Une's eyebrows. She folded her arms. "About what?"

"Aren't you going to lecture me? About killing that boy."

Une raised a single eyebrow. "When has lecturing you ever given me what I wanted?"

"I'm not going to pretend I'm sorry for killing him." The words came out of his mouth easily enough, but they had a sour taste. For an absurd moment, he didn't really believe them.

Eventually, Une said, "I didn't ask you to be."

They both looked at each other.

"I thought—"

"I'm not happy about it," she went on with a frustrated sigh and a ghost of a smile, "and I'm sure I used a few choice words when I was informed. But, we can't un-do it now, can we? Besides," she caught his eye, "something tells me you've already had a lecture." She meant Relena; how she looked at him when the man fell dead- how she looked at him before he'd left for the interrogation.

Relena's disapproval was worse than getting yelled at.

Time to divert the conversation.

Heero shifted in his chair. "You received my message."

Une nodded, hand tracking across the computer screen, which awoke under her touch. "You're taking all the pilots?"

"Ferox knows who we are. Somehow, I think it was meant for all of us."

"And he's not trying to kill you all in one fell swoop?"

Heero smirked. "If you're able to successfully bar Chang or Barton from coming with us, I'll give you a medal."

Une couldn't help but laugh. "At least I have Sally to pick up the slack while her partner's away."

"We need her to run the satellites for us."

"Hmm. Now I remember why I put you on guard duty. When you go on missions, you take nearly half my team away from me."

He gave her a small smile.

Eyes darting from the screen to his, she grew serious. "I want you to keep me informed this time, is that clear? I'm tired of hearing what your up to from somebody else."

"Roger that," he nodded, standing to leave. "Am I dismissed?"

She waved him off. "Ferox is on sub-floor seven, if you want to see him before you head off into the desert. And Heero—"

He stopped halfway to the door, pivoting back to look at her.

She looked him dead in the eye. "Don't let that man undo everything you've worked for. Remember, he was the scientist like the other four, except he hid instead of sacrificing himself for the good of the mission. Men like that are cunning and selfish, which makes them very dangerous."

"I'll keep that in mind," he murmured, turning back, striding out of her office. He nearly ran into Trowa in the hall.

"Good…morning?" The man said with a hint of amusement. As Heero's shoulders sagged, he added, "I thought I told you to get some rest."

"Maxwell," Heero groaned.

"Ah," his face softened with a smile. "It makes sense now. I got your message." Trowa's eyebrow drew down slightly. "Do you need me to bring anything?"

Good question. "The usual assortment. Do you still have some of that compact C4?"

"I do."

"And gasmasks for all of us." Heero thought for a moment, and then said measurably, "That laser cutter being demo-d for the Mars project."

Trowa shoved one hand into his pocket, the other clutching his computer pad. "I could see if they'd let me borrow it. It's shipping up in a few weeks though, so we'll have to bring it back in one piece."

"It's just a precaution."

"Right. Well," Trowa nodded towards Une's office, "duty calls. Are you going to see Ferox?"

Heero grunted. To be honest, he wasn't sure. There was an itching desperation to hear what the man had to say, but the Lady was right too—Ferox was dangerous. It would be much more prudent to let him rot without another audience to boost his ego.

But if he could get more information about what they might face tomorrow…

Trowa smiled, "I'll see you around."

They parted ways.

* * *

The cool water slipped through his fingers as he pulled downward towards his side. It was the only way he clear his mind at times; the lap pool on Subfloor One.

He'd worked on a bit on the mission preparations an hour before. Quatre had one of his larger jets chartered, and the control tower logs were already properly doctored. The blonde had looked quite eager to get back into the field, and had shown Heero he was wearing the Preverter's jacket they'd gifted him last year on the video chat. When Heero reassured him it was only a routine scout and report, Quatre waved him off.

" _Anything to get me away from all this paperwork."_

Heero's lungs burned as he flipped against the tiled wall of the pool. Two laps without breathing. He could make it another.

"How was dinner last night," he had said, tapping his pencil upon the desk, in a tone that meant he was reluctant to ask.

" _Great! I always enjoy seeing the girls."_

Heero let out a snort. "Even Dorothy?"

" _The President?"_ Quatre smiled. _"Of course. Relena too. She always keeps me up to date with what's going on between you two."_

Heero paled, and then flushed, all in the space of about half a second; his body going ridged.

After a terrifyingly silent moment—

" _All the exciting lectures and horrible luncheons you have to deal with."_

"…Hn."

But there was a glint to Quatre's eye.

Reaching the other end of the Olympic-sized lane, Heero's head breached the surface of the water, lungs taking in huge heaving breaths.

As he floated there, water dripping into his eyes, panting, he realized they were all laughing at him.

Who was he trying to fool anymore?

His steps made wet footfalls over the men's changing room floor. He popped open his locker. Tossing the goggles inside, plus the swim shorts, he pulled his towel off the little shelf and meandered over to the wall showers.

As Heero stepped under the spigot, the doors at the back of the room opened, and Wufei Chang came around the back row carrying a duffle bag, stopping a few lockers down from his.

"I've been doing more surveillance on those coordinates," the man said curtly without so much of a 'hello', setting his bag down on the bench. "There's nothing out there. It's just a desert. If they're sending down suits there's no backup nearby."

"We're going to need Sally on the satellite."

Wufei snorted. "I thought as much. She was… excited." He sat down next to the bag and began changing into his gi. The shower squeaked off and Heero pulled his towel from the rung. "Oh yeah," Wufei added with a sidelong glance and smirk, as if he'd just remembered something.

Heero wrapped the towel round his waist and gave the other pilot a questioning look.

Wufei's smirk deepened as he stood to rifle through his locker. "Relena's in the building."

He thought a moment as to the appropriate reply.

But Wufei didn't give him a chance before saying, "Maxwell's already got a hold of her."

Fuck.

As soon as the curse entered his mind, the doors at the back of the changing room banged open once more. Before the pencil skirt came into view, they could hear her heels clicking over the floor. Both men froze.

Heero gave a barely audible huff of incredulity. What the hell was she doing?

Wufei jumped back with a clang against the metal locker as Relena rounded the corner. In an action that would have made Heero laugh given any other circumstance, the man leaned away from the oncoming Foreign Minister and pressed his discarded shirt against his still-bare chest.

"Damn it, woman!"

She gave Wufei a very bland look, but her gaze was fierce as it eventually rounded on him.

The fingers that held the towel closed against his hip clenched almost unconsciously. It was automatic; "Good morning."

His easy tone seemed to catch her off-guard. She stopped in her tracks. Her hair was let down today, he noticed; it fell over the shoulders of her blouse.

"Do you—" she regained her composure. "Do have a moment?" Her words were firm, but kind too. The question was as simple as if they were standing in the middle of the Embassy building, or the small room of his apartment. Except for his… nakedness. Well, his apartment, so…

He straitened up, military precision in the square of his shoulders. "Is there an emergency?"

"There'd better be, otherwise there's no reason for a person to just barge in here…" Wufei grumbled under his breath as he gathered up his things.

For the first time since her _barging in_ , Relena blushed.

"Don't bother apologizing," Wufei said as quickly as she opened her mouth, "I was just leaving." He closed his locker with a sharp _twang_ and stalked off without another word to either of them.

Heero had moved not a muscle, keeping a steady gaze on Relena's face. She looked very suddenly out of place, like she didn't rightly know how she came to find herself in the men's locker room.

Once the other pilot's footfalls had faded, she seemed to regain a bit of her former venom.

"As Foreign Minister I am to be informed of all missions—" she began hotly.

"You can cut the act," he interrupted. She stared at him, open-mouthed. "Whatever you want, you can just ask me." He hoped he sounded sincere. He was tired of their usual dance. "There's no need to pull rank with me, Relena."

"Oh. But I—" The way she looked at him, it was like for the first time. Her eyes crinkled, and a glowing smile of self-amusement seemed to lift her right up off the ground. Her eyes fled towards the ceiling before she covered them delicately with her hand. "You know," her voice was slightly muffled, "every time I resolve myself to be furious with you it never works." She sank in one fluid motion onto the wooden bench.

He smiled, but she didn't see. He knew she had every right to be angry. He'd been acting odd lately, even for him, even before the Ferox business.

She folded her arms, looking over at him. "I'm sorry."

Heero pulled his shirt from the locker and hung it over the open metal door. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"Fine then," she gave him a badly concealed glance out of the corner of her eye when he—as casually as he could— unwrapped the towel from his waist. "It's an apology in advance."

"Hn." He pulled the rest of his clothing out and began to dress. "What have you done this time?"

Relena scoffed. "I haven't done anything…" the ' _yet'_ was left unsaid.

Heero buttoned his fly, finally able to towel off his hair, which had been dripping onto his shoulders. "This was supposed to be a covert mission." He tossed the towel asides and shrugged on his collared shirt.

Relena stood. "Duo is bad a keeping secrets. Especially when given the chance to annoy you."

"Hn," he grunted.

Heero paused on the middle button as she took a step closer, her fingertips brushing his, taking their time to linger against his skin before she grasped the shirt instead. He stood there, arms still bent, as she dressed him.

She looked up as she finished the last button. "And I seem to have some persuasive skills."

His voice rumbled. "Does it work on me?"

She sighed, eyes fluttering closed. "Not usually. Sometimes," she amended, blinking slowly.

He reached out to grasp her hands, but not before smoothing a lock of hair away from her eyes. He gently pulled her fingers from his person. "The answer is no, Relena"

"No? But you don't even know what I'm going to—"

"You want to come with us."

"He pretended to _blow me up_ , Heero. I think I deserve to go with you."

"Maybe if we knew what we were up against; if we knew it was just an asteroid. But it could easily be a weapon. Or a mobile suit."

Relena waved him off. "I've survived far worse."

He frowned. "You have an unhealthy obsession for running headlong into dangerous situations."

Her fingers curled around his hands where they held her. She was incredulous. "You do it all the time! How is that not com _pletely_ hypocritical?"

Heero let out a short chuckle. Wasn't it obvious? "Because you're important. I'm expendable."

"You are _not_ ," she said with harsh emphasis, wrenching her hands away and looking angry.

His laughter died in his throat. He frowned deeply. "I didn't mean—"

"Yes you did," she said in a hard voice. "You meant exactly what you said."

He did. Because he believed it was true. She could go on without him, surely. The world still needed an idealistic, peaceful woman like Relena. It didn't need an ex-soldier with recurring nightmares.

"I should go…" she said finally. "I was a fool to think I could persuade you."

She was right about that.

"Relena." He caught her wrist, pulling her back closer to his chest.

She blushed. He saw the way her eyelids drooped just a fraction.

"I know you don't like feeling protected, or sheltered," he began quietly. They were so close he only had to whisper. "You're too strong and too brave." Her lips pressed together as his thumb traced her cheekbone. "But it's not always for _your sake_ that I keep you in the dark."

"Oh really?" She said with a glint to her eye.

The air in his lungs felt oddly heavy.

"These are unpredictable situations, Relena. I can't always keep my focus if you're… distracting me."

She wrinkled her nose. "Be careful. That sounded like a compliment." It had? He blinked at her, watching in silence. "Once again," she sighed, "I simply can't stay mad at you."

He let out a relieved breath. "The feeling's mutual."

"I hope so," she murmured offhandedly as she tipped upward to kiss his cheek. "Duo will be disappointed. I don't think he succeeded in annoying you."

"Give him time. It's only ten o'clock."

Relena grinned cheekily at him, but in the back of their minds they were both aware: if they lingered for too long, someone was bound to interrupt.

"I'll write up a report for you when we return," he told her as he packed up. Relena just nodded. For all her storming in, she certainly she seemed pacified enough. He was used to her being more adamant, more grudging. But this time it had been almost… easy.

She bid him goodbye—she had a meeting at eleven—and snuck her way back out the locker room with a bit more caution then then when she came in.

Heero listened to her tiptoed footfalls as they faded out the door.

In one of the empty conference rooms, before finishing his work and against his better judgment, Heero logged on to the Preventer's internal servers. It was easier to hack into the lockup's security feed, rather than input some equally hackable password-username combination.

A few swift keystrokes and he was in. From the small, camouflaged camera in the upper corner of the room, he could look down into Ferox's cell.

The man sat on the floor, staring at the wall.

For several minutes he watched and wracked his brain, trying to come up with some idea as to what was in store for them tomorrow, but he could think of nothing. Perhaps the 'meteor' would give them answers.

His phone buzzed. Heero took his eyes off the screen momentarily to send the call to voicemail, but when he returned—

Ferox had tilted his head upward to the ceiling, gaze locked unblinkingly with the concealed camera.


	8. Chapter 8

"I'll tell ya," Duo Maxwell said in a loud voice, arms stretched up over his head, "she's no Gundam, but she's certainly a thing of beauty."

"Thanks," Quatre mumbled, a bit pink at Heero's shoulder as the three made their way across the tarmac towards the cargo aircraft. It was a little bigger than what Relena might take traveling from conference to conference; big enough for an extra cache of firearms.

Duo turned from where he'd skipped head, walking backwards and saying, "I heard Trowa's bringing the laser." His face lit up. "Well? Is he?"

Quatre's gaze flicked to Heero, who gave a nod. The American's eyes rolled up with glee.

The belly of the plane gaped open. As they approached, Wufei jumped down from inside from where the loading ramp extended. "The satellite link-up's been installed," he said, handing them all earpieces, looking smug with himself. His eyes turned toward Quatre. "Glad to see you're coming with us."

"Yeah!" Quatre exclaimed. "Trowa said you built the new satellite sync chip yourself!"

Wufei hiked his thumb. "Come on. I'll show you how it works."

Heero watched the two disappeared into the plane before Duo tapped on his shoulder with the back of his knuckles. "Hey man, here comes Trowa. With some other guy."

Checklist in his hand, Trowa guided a pallet stocked with various forms of weaponry over towards them. Heero's gaze was first attracted to the large stockpile, but his focus slowly trailed to the small soldier pushing the load—a petite figure in Preventer's fatigues, whose cap was pulled down low against the bright sun rebounding off the asphalt.

Probably someone from the science department, sent to make sure they didn't break their new laser toy.

"Get this loaded. There's a auto-lift panel inside," Trowa said to the grunt, before giving Duo and Heero a kind smile. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah," Heero replied, grabbing a handle on the inside of the plane's hold and pulling himself up. "As soon as your cargo's secure."

If the engine sounded quiet outside the craft, it was a bare hum within the cabin. It was amazing how much they had achieved in so few years. At times he wondered what it would have been like if the Gundams were built now instead of when he was fifteen. That was a dangerous thought, and he quickly learned to banish it from his mind.

Beyond the bay doors it looked like any other luxury jet; desks, computer screens, and rows of leather swivel chairs spaced about the cabin. Duo slid into the nearest chair, his momentum swinging him around and around and around—

"Maxwell!" A voice snapped from the cockpit. Wufei. "Stop playing around and get up here!"

He vaulted out of the chair so fast it was left spinning on its own. He called as he went, "Hey! That's _Captain_ Maxwell to you, buddy!"

Heero sat down heavily in one of the recliners, exhausted. He'd spent the night at HQ and got about as good a sleep as when he slept on the floor. Staring out at the glittering Tower, his mind wandered back to Ferox's cold eyes staring up into the security camera.

Heero closed his with a smirk. This mission will be over soon enough, he thought. Another insane man put out to pasture. It didn't matter if he was acquainted with Operation Meteor or some religious faction; they were all the same. Except this one was a coward.

For the first time in a long time, Heero Yuy felt a rushing pleasure when he imagined putting that man, his enemy, down for good.

The hydraulic sound of the plane's belly pulling up brought him out of his daydream. The craft began to move upon the tarmac, and it's vibrations shifted something inside of him. He was suddenly alert, and a bit agitated. His hand upon the armrest clenched before he stood.

He passed Quatre on the way into the cockpit.

"Wufei's just finishing up. Duo's flying. Are you the co-pilot?" the blonde asked, moving to one of the passenger chairs.

"We'll see," he replied in a low tone, poking his head beyond the blast-proof door. Duo was behind the Captain's terminal. Wufei was flipping the last panel gauge. "Mind if I take over?"

Duo threw up his hands.

Wufei smirked as he stood. "Still need to ride shotgun, huh?"

Heero frowned, but took the chair that was offered him. As the door closed behind Wufei's back, he looked after. He caught a glimpse of Trowa and Quatre conversing with the petite soldier they'd brought along before the door closed with a _snap_.

"Alright everybody," Duo's voice came through on speaker, "hope you're all strapped in." He clicked the mic off with a touch to his earpiece.

Wufei was right, Heero thought as he cinched in his belt and the plane began to pick up speed, g-force pressing him back into his chair.

This feeling.

His fingers twitched on the armrest.

Just like the simulator from his training with Doctor J. Just like every time he'd throw his hand-grips forward, the whole length of his arm extended and taunt as his Gundam broke the sound barrier. Mind focused. Teeth grit. Adrenaline pumping.

The cargo plane was nearly vertical in its takeoff.

Their pilot had a flair for the dramatic.

Duo's cowboy-like whoop of laughter echoed about the cockpit as they breached the cloud line, so even with the mic turned off, the others probably heard him. As he sat there, stone-faced and calm, Heero finally grasped why his American friend meant so much to him. Maxwell always seemed able to voice exactly what Heero was thinking.

"Man, that never gets old."

"Yeah."

Duo's hand strayed towards the com. "This is your captain speaking. We're currently cruzin at about forty-one thousand feet so yur all free to move about the cabin. Estimated time of arrival… 1445." The speaker pinged. "So," he said once the microphone was off and he'd turned towards Heero. "What did you— aw man. Really?"

Heero's head was already nodded down to his chest, arms crossed and eyes closed.

Duo grumbled something along the lines of, " _Every damn time."_

But Heero couldn't help it. Something about the familiarity of the cockpit made him feel easy— lighter. Sometimes it felt like the only comfortable position for him anymore, and he took sleep where he could.

In his mind there were visions of Gundams and simulated space flight; the rushing roar of the sea around his sinking mobile suit; the strain of his muscles after hours and hours of battle; death. Always the same.

_Heero…_

Except sometimes _she_ would be there too, emerging from the burning wreckage of whatever he'd destroyed, dress whipping around her body; the same school uniform she wore during their first dance. He couldn't really call those times nightmares, although seeing her rise from the ashes did, at times, strike some deep, animalistic fear inside him.

After what felt like just a handful of moments, a soft chime roused him from his sleep.

"We're here," Duo said with a yawn. "About fifteen minutes from the meteor's impact." He tapped one of the gauges and let down the landing gear— specially crafted for desert conditions. "Wufei says the touch-down coordinates are outside the blast radius." Duo strained as the wing flaps caught against the wind, slowing them down as they dropped in altitude.

"You're coming in too steep," Heero said evenly as the rolling sand raced up to meet them.

"Hah! She'll take it!"

The landing skis touched down, bounced once, and the body of the craft tipped dangerously forward. Wufei's sharp curse could be heard back in the cabin, but Duo was able to maneuver the controls. They slid a few hundred feet before, and with a great creaking _thump_ , settled back down onto the surface of the dune.

Heero gave his friend a cool glare. Duo just grinned.

"Told ya."

"I want full readings," he said, un-hooking his harness

"You got it."

They unloaded quickly and efficiently. Wufei took his spot in the cockpit, linking up with the satellite and patching his mic down to them.

" _Are we live?"_ A familiar voice came in over the radio. Back at headquarters, Sally most likely sat before a large bank of computer screens and remote control joysticks. From there she could re-position any of the in-orbit satellite stations.

" _Affirmative,"_ was Wufei's reply.

Heero jumped down from the belly into the sand, trudging over to where Duo sat on one of the plane's skis, facing the appropriate direction. The American handed over a pair of digital binoculars, looking back out through his own. They could hear Trowa talking to his assistant in the back, directing them to unpack certain devices should they need them.

"How long?" Heero asked in a low voice.

Duo checked his watch. "Five minutes. We're getting this recorded, yeah?"

" _Unless your coordinates were wrong,"_ came Sally over the feed. Duo made a face. _"I saw that."_

Wrinkling his nose, he looked skyward. "Yeah," he drawled sarcastically. "Almost forgot."

And then they waited, the faint sound of wind off the dunes creating a strange background whirl.

From around the back of the plane, Trowa hiked to where they were standing, the scientist lagging behind, hanging back nervously. "Do you want the masks?" He asked them.

"Not yet." Heero gave them a passing glance before-

Quatre, in the cockpit with Wufei, let out an excited noise _"I've picked it up on radar! It's coming from deep space, just outside the orbit of Mars."_

Wufei did a quick re-calculation. _"Five degrees south-west. It's entering the atmosphere."_

It only took a moment for the object to hurdle into the planet's path. Across the gulf of sand, up in the sky, there came a small light which grew in intensity.

They stood there, transfixed, until a great flash lit up the already bright afternoon and the boom of a broken sound barrier rattled the world; a violent storm of light and sound.

And in that moment, from over his shoulder, came a soft, "Oh god."

Heero tore his eyes away, turning sharply where he stood. The pulled-low cap worn by the grunt scientist had been torn away by the wind, revealing a tight blonde-haired bun.

The red flash of impact lit across Relena's face as she stood open-mouthed, looking over his shoulder. She winced away as the earth around them shuddered, a hand shooting out to steady herself against the side of the plane.

For a moment Heero could not move. He was convinced, for half a second, that he was seeing things. It wasn't until the shower of sand and dust had settled, and Duo had turned around to say, "Whoa, Princess. The hell you doing here?" that Heero snapped out of his utter shock.

" _We've got a picture of the crash site,"_ came Wufei's voice, but Heero paid it little attention as he stalked over to where Relena stood up against the hull.

She looked ashamed, found out, and wouldn't meet his gaze.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't find the right words. Instead he worked his face back into a cold mask and grabbed her wrist, gripping it tight, pulling her over to the open belly of the plane.

As they stepped up onto the gangplank, he murmured, "I'll kill Barton."

"It wasn't his fault. I made him," Relena whispered as her back pressed up against the mesh netting inside the hold. He held her there under his grip.

He glowered at her. "Made him?"

Relena attempted a coy smirk, but it came off as a watery smile. "I'm very… persuasive?" Heero growled, letting her go, turning his back. Her hand shot out to rest on his arm. "Don't be angry, please. I wanted to see it for myself. Please."

He pivoted toward her once more, deep frown pulling his brows together, ready to ask her exactly _how_ he was suppose to keep his promise of protecting her if she never listened to a word he said, when a voice made them turn.

"Hey!" Quatre emerged from the cabin. He took one wide-eyed look between them, gulped, and then said, "The meteor. It deployed a parachute."

It took them over ten minutes to trudge down to the edge of the crash site.

The false hope Heero had harbored, that the object was simple chunk of space rock, were quickly dashed.

A small, gleaming, egg-shaped object rested on its side down below them.

It was a pod, no bigger than his motorbike. Two chutes had deployed to lessen the impact; they lay deflated over the back of the 'craft', draped down onto the ground. Even so, it had made a sizable crater in the soft sand.

They stood atop the embankment, looking down. Wufei had brought along one of the portable computer pads, fingers whizzing over the surface as Sally relayed the satellite data down for him to analyze.

Heero turned towards their weapons expert, holding out his hand. "Drill."

Trowa handed over the small, baton-shaped device. Heero hooked his foot over the sandy ledge.

"You're going down there?"

He turned his head toward Relena, who stood between Duo and Quatre, looking apprehensive. He had to force his brain to believe she was really there. He grunted in affirmation, vaguely annoyed at her questioning his mission tactics.

Wufei started to follow. "I'll go with you."

"If something goes wrong," Heero said in controlled monotone while giving Duo a sidelong glance. "Get in the plane and go. Don't wait."

Duo nodded solemnly. He and the remaining three watched Heero and Wufei's retreating backs as they made their way down the dune, boots kicking up dust.

"For the record," Wufei murmured, head bent into his charts as they went, "I had no idea she was on-board. These missions are no place for a woman."

Heero did not reply.

In the center of the crater, the pod glistened a pearly white. Some kind of hard plastic that could withstand atmospheric entry; it wasn't Gundanium. That afforded him a small amount of comfort, even as he pulled his pistol from the back waistband of his fatigues.

In one hand he leveled the gun towards the foreign object, his other held the drill. The craft didn't seem to have a discernible hinges or panels. They'd have to cut it open.

With a whirling tiny motor, the laser tip sparked and hummed. Wifei stood several paces away, but Heero crept closer, lowering the drill's white-hot blade towards the smooth exterior.

He hadn't even touched it yet when it made a sudden, loud _crack._ With a sharp crinkle, a fissure in the white casing began to appear, growing wider.

Heero froze, weapon raised.

As the top of the shell slid away, a hiss of depressurization sent a puff of vapor into the air. It quickly evaporated.

He narrowed his eyes. That could only mean there were life support systems on board.

The shell paused half way, as if it might have been stuck; it was still too cloudy to see what lay inside. With a grunt of effort, Heero brought a boot up to push against the lid, giving it a hard shove with his heel. It issued a rough scraping sound, the top falling back against the sand.

Heero held his breath, leaning farther in, finger sliding up a bit closer towards the trigger.

Inside, as the desert air absorbed the mist, little diodes and blinking lights began to appear. Cushy padding and plastic molding sculpted the small, cramped space, from which tubes and wires protruded like strands of hair.

Except—

There _was_ hair, mingled there within the wires.

Even as the gun barrel pointed down into the tiny spaceship, it dropped a fraction of an inch as the sight took Heero by surprise.

Curled up in the fetal position, knees against chest, arms wrapped around the lower legs, lay a child. So thin, he could see each vertebra in the spine as the neck bent down into the chest. And the neck… although electrodes were adhered all over the body, at the base if the skull there was a small, round, metal-riveted port. From the port, a thick cable protruded, curling back into the on-board computer.

Heart beating wildly, turning off and pocketing the drill, Heero reached out to touch the blinking panel, but jumped back with a curse of surprise as it beeped loudly and then disengaged, the hose falling from its attachment under the skin.

The body stirred.

"The hell…?" he heard Wufei whisper.

A long curtain of silvery-white hair slowly rose up out of the pod, facing away from them. Thin, boney shoulders came next as the figure sat up, looking around.

Heero cocked his pistol.

At the sound, the figure paused, turning slowly.

It was a young girl.

Naked and pale, her bare breasts and arms shone in the sun. She regarded those upon the ridge, then Wufei, finally turning fully to stare at the figure closest- Heero Yuy.

His lips were parted in surprise as the girl's bright lilac eyes pierced his own.

Her face was blank, but as she regarded him, something within her seemed to come to life, and as Heero stared back he might have thought, just maybe, that she looked a bit familiar…

The girl blinked, rotating in her craft so her body crouched like an animal. What wires hadn't been stripped away by her movement, clung to her like taunt marionette strings.

In a soft voice, she asked with child-like serenity, "Are you my enemy?"

He aimed for her head.

Even from the ridge, he could hear Relena's voice— "Don't shoot!" –just like on stage at the Terraformation conference.

At her words, Heero faltered.

The gun drooped.

And the girl pounced.


	9. Chapter 9

The moment she touched him, her hands like claws against his jacket, the world winked out of sight. Heero Yuy no longer saw the twisted face of a young girl—child really—pale, almost translucent skin pulled back in a snarl--

He saw-

Darkness… and then came a brief flash of bright golden light, blinding, all consuming, and superimposed upon that light were flashes of a different kind; so vivid they left him breathless.

Memories.

Images of places he'd been but had completely forgotten, faces of people he hadn't thought of in years. Things he didn't even _know_ he had remembered.

_He was posing for a picture, two figures on either side bending down as the camera shutter snapped, his toy clutched in his hands—_

_His mother's head pitched back as she laughed at her husband's foolishness—_

_The base exploding. On the television screen he saw great plumes of smoke and fire bellowing into the colony as overhead sirens blared all around him—_

Each time the memory changed there came a beeping in the background. Faint, but slowly growing in volume and cadence like a racing pulse. It was… familiar somehow…

Zero's targeting protocol.

_He was running towards the scene of the attack, ducking behind emergency crew lines and sneaking around military checkpoints, hugging the little Leo to his chest. Maybe if he was able to get there in time. Maybe he could save them both._

_Crouching down to avoid a group of evacuating residents, he bolted towards the other side of an alleyway._

Almost there!

_A hand closed around his shoulder, yanking him into the shadows so fast, the Leo dropped from his hands._

" _Not so fast there, son," the man said. Odin had said.  
_

What he'd locked away in the darkest corners of his mind had all come spilling back out. Like his brain was being split in two.

_The first time he'd held a gun. Target practice for hours. Simulation drills. Living on the run. Never in one place for more than a few days. Left to fend for himself to test his progress. The dismantling and reassembling of firearms with a stopwatch. Network hacking. Rebel basecamps. Impromptu political theory. A man with a metal hand._

_The photograph…_

" _You see this man?" Odin dangled a snapshot over their tin-can campfire. Through the flames he could see a dark-haired guy in a suit standing upon a stage, arm outstretched toward the crowd in a sign of comradery._

" _Who is he?"_

_Odin huffed through his nose, "Heero Yuy."_

"… _you killed him."_

_Odin nodded, pointing to the man's head with a finger. "Right between the eyes. Just like you're going to do tomorrow."_

His first kill. The first in a long line of many, even after Odin had died, when he came into the care of another.

_Ash and snow fell down all around him; on the body of a dog half buried in the rubble—_

So many lives…

_Doctor J looked up at him in the cockpit. "Let's decide on a code name," his mechanical hand clicked. "I've borrowed the name of the late pacifist colony leader."_

" _Roger that."_

_On stage at St. Garbiel's, his voice echoed around the stuffy classroom. Among the students, the girl from the beach watched him with wide eyes and parted lips. "My name is Heero Yuy."_

My name is Heero Yuy.

_A boy in an explosive vest fell dead as a bullet sank into his brain._

My name—

_Behind a podium, a young man slumped forward, sniper round piercing his skull._

My name is—

_Ferox grinned at him from across the table._

"Heero!"

His eyes snapped open as the back of his head hit sand. There was a moment of disorientation as he lay there, where the clawing, snarling weight on his chest tried to rip him apart, but Wufei had immediately jumped into action.

Wrestling the girl from behind, the other pilot hooked his arms under her flailing limbs and dragged her off his chest. There came an uncomfortable keening sound as she lashed out, legs kicking, but Wufei held her tight, wedging her against the pod with his body.

"Are- you alright?" He managed to ask over one shoulder.

Heero didn't answer. All that came out was a stiff sounding groan as he clutched his head, trying to sit up. His temples were pounding, blood rushing in his ears.

What the hell was that?

It felt like he'd been run over by a truck. Or maybe self-destructed.

He rolled to one side, arm bent under his chest, lifting his shoulders off the ground just enough to catch sight of the others running towards them. Relena, who had called his name, _sprinted_ towards him, showering his legs with sand as she skidded to a halt and dropped to her knees.

"What happened?!" She said frantically, hands splayed over his body, checking for wounds. But it was just his jacket, scuffed and torn from the girl's nails.

He looked up into her bright, wide eyes. "How long was I out?"

She blinked. "How long?" Her voice raised in worry. "She jumped, you fell. I don't-"

But that was impossible. He had seen… how could he have seen so much in just a few seconds?

"You're hurting her!" came Quatre's sudden exclamation.

They both looked up in time to see Wufei scoff as he pulled the girl's wrists down roughly behind her back. "She was trying to kill him."

Trowa started forward but Relena slowly stood, turning towards them.

"Be gentle with her." Her voice, once frantic over his concern, was now a firm sort of calm. It was the same tone she used to address her Nation; the world. It was instantly commanding. They all turned to look at her, even the girl, whose flailing stilled.

"She won't hurt anyone if we treat her kindly." Her eyes locked with Wufei's. "Please let her go."

The man released his grip immediately, stepping back, turning away. Sally must have squawked in on his private line because Wufei slowly retreated with a hand to his earpiece. "Yes," he snapped, eyes darting to Relena and away again. "I can hear you."

Duo bent a knee and offered Heero his hand. "You alright there, buddy?"

"Yeah," Heero managed as he was pulled into a sitting position. They all watched, even Quatre and Trowa, as Relena slowly advanced towards the girl. The frail creature had shrunk back against the side of the pod, trying to hide her face behind her arm.

"It's alright." Relena bent down, her hand outstretched. "Don't be afraid, no one is going to hurt you. Come on."

The girl didn't budge. She was shaking, squinting from the sun, and naked with sand sticking to her thighs and arms.

Quatre slipped out of his honorary-issue jacket and held it out, mimicking Relena's posture and tone. "You should wear this. You'll get burned otherwise."

The corner of Relena's mouth quirked upwards as the girl hesitated, but then took a tentative step towards the outstretched clothing. With boney fingers she gripped the jacket and dragged it towards her. Quatre let go as the girl pulled it on.

Relena used the opportunity to inch closer, whispering, "You're safe now." The girl was on edge, like a trapped animal, but she did not move away as Relena smoothed back her long white locks. Wide, dilated eyes darted from one unfamiliar face to another, but they always seemed to come back to Heero, who batted away Duo's hand as he slowly got to his feet.

"There," Relena said with a kind smile as she wiped sand off the girl's forearm. "That's better isn't it? Here, let me help you." Her hands reached for jacket's buttons. "Can you talk? What's your name?"

A spark of life ignited within the girl. "Heero Yuy," she quipped shyly.

"You're not. _"_

The way they all looked at him, he might as well have shouted it. Heero took a step forward and narrowed his eyes, heart thumping uncomfortably.

"Don't lie." His voice was deadly; he hadn't sounded so ruthless with so little effort in such a long time. "Answer Relena's question," he added darkly. "What is your name?"

"Z-Zero…?" the girl said, sounding a bit scared and confused as to why she was being asked a second time.

A muscle in Heero's jaw twitched.

Behind him, he heard Duo Maxwell let out a low whistle. "Freaky…"

"I'm going to ask you once more," Heero rumbled, advancing further. The girl shrank back into the jacket, hunching her shoulders. "Tell us your name."

Trembling, she whispered, "…Aoi Clark."

Relena looked at him, startled, but the other pilots didn't make the connection.

"Who?" Duo asked aloud.

"Aoi," Quatre repeated, thumb and forefinger raised to his chin. "But who could that be?"

"It doesn't matter!"

At Heero's loud bark the girl jumped, flinging herself into Relena's arms with a shriek of fear. She buried her head into Relena's chest and wailed.

The others looked on in shock.

"Whoa man," Duo murmured, giving Heero a startled glance. "Settle down."

"She's not any of those… people," he said again, quieter, but more firm. More controlled. He swallowed hard.

Relena watched him with a strange expression on her face. Curiosity. Helplessness. Maybe it was pity. He didn't like any of those options. "What do we do with her?" She asked them, rubbing gentle circles on the hiccupping girl's back.

"We should take her back with us," Trowa said in a calmer tone then the situation warranted. "We can have Sally check her out; run some tests."

"Is that really a good idea?" Duo quipped as he stretched out his back. "She could be one of Ferox's spies for all we know."

"We can't just leave her here," Quatre offered. "I'm with Trowa on this one. Besides, she'd just a kid."

"Yeah," Duo murmured out the side of his mouth, hands on his hips, "so we're _we_ during Operation Meteor." He shot a look in Heero's direction, who was glowering at the two women. "What do you think?"

Heero's jaw clenched. Quatre was right, they couldn't leave her; she'd die. Plus, a bit of testing _could_ give them more information… but whatever had happened, whatever she did to him, it wasn't right. It wasn't normal.

He must have looked like he was having second thoughts because Relena said quietly, "Heero…" He found her eyes. "Please."

He glared, yet relented. "Fine."

Duo bounced on his heels. "I'll get the winch. We can drag the pod up and store it in the cargo bay."

"Fine," Heero said again in the same dark, resigned tone as he straightened his ruined jacket and turned on his heels to walk back up the dune. He didn't spare them another glance- not at Relena and not at the girl, not Duo, Quatre, Trowa, or Wufei as he passed him on the way back to their aircraft. He didn't stop until he'd hoisted himself back inside the cabin and sat down heavily in one of the leather swivel chairs, his head in his hands.

_Right between the eyes._

_What was his name?_

_Heero Yuy._

Heero shook his head to try and rid himself of the memories, but they lingered like imprints from a dream.

His troubled thoughts kept him occupied until—

"Hey man, you ready to go?"

"Huh?"

Heero raised his head. Duo stood before him, hiking a thumb. "We're all packed up." At the nonplused look he scratched the back of his head, one eye squinting. "Geez, are you feelin' alright? You don't look so good."

Heero frowned, and turned to stare out the window.

There was a moment's silence before, "Hey…"

Heero stiffened as Duo knelt before him and clasped his kneecap. It was the most intimate contact he'd ever had with the man.

Voice uncommonly soft, uncharacteristic frown pulling at his eyebrows, Duo held his gaze. "If you need to talk about somethen…" His eyes cut away and back again, speaking quietly, "Sometimes I get these nightmares…"

But the sounds of the others made Heero pull away. Not physically, but he straightened up, slipping on his mask. "It's fine," he said in easy monotone. "Are you flying us out of here?"

"You wanna ride shotgun?" Duo stood.

"No." When Duo didn't leave he gave him another glance. "I need to speak with Relena," Heero clarified.

His friend took a deep breath, eyebrows jumping, but he did begin to move away. The noise from the cargo hold meant everything was loaded up. "Don't be too hard on her," the American whispered as he retreated, "love makes people do stupid things."

Heero glowered as the others spilled into the cabin. Wufei stalked silently the way Duo had gone without looking at anything or anyone. Quatre was talking animatedly to Trowa about the strange pod as they took their seats opposite the cabin; Relena found her way to the chair across from his, swiveling to face him. The girl was wrapped up against her chest, head lulling onto her shoulder. As she sat, Relena pulled the girl up tighter like a baby, and continued to sooth her back with soft fingertips.

"She fell asleep." Relena shifted her arm to loop under the girl's legs and hold her in place. "It must have been too much for her."

"Hn."

After a long moment she caught his gaze, a pained expression on her face.

"What happened out there, Heero?"

It was like he hadn't even heard her.

Relena shook her head, imploring. "I want to figure this out as much as you do. I want to help"

Heero's hand clenched on the armrest. "Like when you snuck your way onto this plane."

She wrinkled her nose. "Alright, I'm sorry about that. You were right," she huffed. "Does that make you feel better?"

No. It didn't.

"She's not right," he said in a low voice, looking at the child. "She's not normal."

"She fell out of the sky, Heero."

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "That's not what I mean."

"Then what _do_ you mean? What _happened?_ When you—"

"She showed me things," he said, and looked over to see Quatre and Trowa staring at them. There was no point and pretending any of this was private. There would be no hiding it. They were like a… family. Some twisted band of brothers. "It was like being inside Zero," he started, but stopped short. It sounded insane, even to him.

"You should see what she was hooked up to back there," Trowa remarked with a calculating tone. "It's pretty advanced. There's no telling what it's done to her. We need to give it a thorough examination."

The plane rumbled to life underneath them. To his credit, Duo took the takeoff a little smoother that time around.

Relena ran her fingers through the girls' long white hair, smoothing it. She brushed the metal port. Confusion and sadness pulled her lips into a frown, but all the while she didn't take her eyes off the man across from her. They stared at each other for a long while, neither speaking, until the adrenaline from the day's events drained from Relena's body and her eyelids began to droop. Heero watched as she leant back in the chair, studying her face until she joined the girl in sleep.

Relena's delicate eyebrows twitch as she dreamt, her lips pursing gently.

For the duration of the flight Heero sat in silence, ruminating.

He had to get a handle on all this before it started spinning out of control. _More_ out of control.

Ferox knew this would happen; knew the girl would be there. He _wanted_ Heero to find her. But why? Was he doing it for his own amusement? Did he have something to gain?

Why the ruse of becoming a cult leader?

The girl must have been part of his experiments. She had to be. But where did she come from? Deep space? The records they had on Ferox indicated he'd been living on Earth for the past few years, not traveling up to some remote science satellite.

Heero glared at the sleeping girl.

She had known those names. _Her_ name.

Why?

His hands clenched so tight they hurt.

Damn it.

What if this was just the beginning? What if Ferox sent in troops? Heero should have been relieved that it hadn't been a mobile suit… but…

If there _was_ an army coming for them…

Heero had come to a sobering conclusion. Without their Gundams, with him and the others past their prime, they wouldn't stand a chance.

He looked to Relena's sleeping face.

Then so be it.

He would fight. He would fight and die defending this world they had created.

To protect her. To protect them all.

A few hours later their plane touched back down on Quatre's private airfield. Squinting in the evening sun, they began to disembark. The new jets were fast, but it had still taken them all day to fly round trip.

Duo hobbled out of the cockpit, yawning. "Man I'm wiped," he groaned, the aircraft powering down around them.

Trowa chuckled. "It _does_ come with autopilot."

As the others lowered the cargo hatch, coordinating how to get the pod onto a transport vehicle, Heero knelt down beside Relena's chair. A lock of hair had fallen over her face. He pushed it back behind her ear, thumb grazing over her cheek.

"Relena…"

"…hum?" She stirred, unconsciously leaning her face into his touch before her eyes fluttered open. "Are we home?"

That word struck him like a physical blow, but he remained outwardly impassive. "They're unloading the cargo now."

She nodded, but looked down at the sleeping figure in her arms. "What are we going to do with her, Heero?"

At least he'd figured out that much. "We'll take her to Une's. She can stay with Mariemaia. They're close in age."

"She's going be alright with that?" Relena whispered, carefully getting to her feet.

"Une wanted to stay up to date with my missions," he said with a shrug, "She can't get any closer that this."

Heero drove them to the far side of the city; the other pilots had stayed behind to take care of the cargo.

"Just go," Trowa had said to him, "we've got this covered. I'll tell Une your plans."

Heero nodded, but his glare was icy.

"Don't be mad a him," Relena had said from the back seat as Heero slid in behind the steering wheel. "He only did what I asked him to do."

"Hn."

But he couldn't dwell on it. They had bigger problems now.

By the time they reached Une's place of residence, she'd already phoned them. Heero pulled up to the curb in front of a row of Victorian-inspired townhomes as she asked him, " _You're coming into work tomorrow, yes?"_

No doubt she wanted another meeting.

"Yeah _,"_ Heero spoke into his earpiece as he put the car in park. "We're going to dismantle the craft. The girl will be brought by for testing."

" _Hmm,"_ Une mused, _"perhaps it would be better if she stayed hidden for now. I'll have Sally make a house call tomorrow."_

"Roger that."

The line went dead just as Relena made a soft noise of surprise in the back seat.

"Heero…"

He turned and unbuckled to look over his shoulder.

The girl was waking up.

She blinked her bright eyes; now out of the blinding desert sun, they seemed to almost glow. Like violet fiber optics. She sat up from where Relena had lain her down across the seat, head in her lap, and looked out the window.

Relena's head tilted to the side, smiling a little. "Aoi?" The name made Heero's chest clench.

"Can we go outside?" The girl's finger pressed against the glass so hard it turned and even paler shade of white. Her voice didn't seem to shake anymore; it was even, almost detached.

Relena let out an amused laugh, making sure the jacket was secured over the girl's shoulders. "Of course we can. Why couldn't we?"

The girl turned, but instead of looking back at Relena, she locked eyes with Heero in the front seat. "There's no air in space."

"We're not in space," he clipped coolly, "we're on Earth."

"Earth…?" It was like she'd never heard of it before. Her question followed him out the car as he went around back to the passenger side. As the door opened the girl clamped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide.

Heero stared down at her with a bored expression. Relena hid a laugh.

"Hurry up," he said before turning to walk the brick steps up to _#1301._ Behind him, he heard Relena helping the girl out of the car.

At the kid's gasping breath, followed by a noise surprise that she wasn't going to die, Heero closed his eyes and let out an exhausted sigh, hand reaching up to press the bell chime with a finger. But before he got the chance, the door was thrown open.

A fifteen-year-old Mariemaia stood on the other side, hip planted and arms folded over her chest. Upon seeing him, she smirked. "You're late," she said, cocking her head, shortly cropped red hair shifting slightly as she did so.

Heero grunted as she stepped past him onto the porch. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the pair coming up to meet them.

"Who's that?" she whispered, nodding over his shoulder

"We're not sure," Heero answered, "but she'll be staying with you indefinitely."

"She's not wearing proper clothes..." Mariemaia looked troubled, but then sighed. "At least I'll finally have someone else to play target practice with." She gave him a sideways glance. "You're schedule's never been very reliable."

His lips twitched despite himself. "No one's suppose to know about that," he said quietly. "And no shooting. I don't want her near any of the firearms..."

"Good evening Miss Relena!" Mariemaia called out, talking over him and giving her a wave. "You'll pardon me for not coming down to meet you. My hip's been giving me a bit of grief as of late."

"That's fine," Relena hugged Mariemaia with her free arm; other hand holding Aio's tight. "How are you otherwise?"

The redhead shrugged. "Good. Bored. As usual. Come inside, please."

They quickly procured some clothing for the girl… well, Mariemaia raided her closet for a suitable outfit. Although they seemed close in age, Aoi was frailer, malnourished. The long-sleeve knit she was gifted hung down almost to her knees.

As Relena showed her the small fish tank against the far wall, Heero and Mariemaia spoke quietly in the kitchen. After relaying the short, abridged version of the day's events, there was a tense silence before Heero reminded her, "This is confidential information."

Mariemaia smiled with a glint in her eyes. She looked the spitting image of Treiz.

"Of course. My lips are sealed. But," and she pointed at Heero with a finger, "I want updates. _Plus,_ you have to come visit more often. That's my babysitting fee."

The corner of Heero's mouth tilted up a fraction as he nodded. She was like Une, too.

He and Relena emerged from the townhome together almost an hour later. They'd left the girls sitting together on the couch, Mariemaia showing an open-mouthed Aoi the wonders of satellite television.

"She'll be alright until tomorrow at least." Relena massaged her temples as she slid into the front passenger seat. "She's very… disoriented, but that's to be expected after everything she'd been through." After a long pause she added, "Do you have _any_ idea as to why she's been sent here? Or who she really is?"

The cruiser rumbled to life. Heero was acutely aware of the look she was giving him as he pulled onto the highway.

"No," he answered after a moment.

"That thing on the back of her neck," Relena's fingers strayed absently to the base of her skull. "She was connected to that pod, wasn't she Heero?"

His hands tightened their grip upon the steering wheel.

Relena sighed, unzipping her loaner jacket and tossing it in the back seat, smoothing out her cotton button-up. "Hopefully Sally's tests will reveal something useful. Any additional information we have can be used to come up with something a bit more permanent."

"Permanent…" Heero echoed.

"A place for Aoi to stay."

"That's not her name."

"Heero…"

He growled, eyes trained on the road. "She's just a part of Ferox's scheme. At best she's a pawn. At worst she's our enemy."

"She's a _child!_ Besides, what _should_ we call her? _Zero?_ She had no idea what her name was. Or where she'd landed. The poor thing had never even heard of Earth…" Relena trailed off, voice steeped in emotions Heero could not identify.

He changed lanes, prepared to exit into downtown toward her apartment, but Relena stopped him.

"Stay on the freeway."

"Relena…"

"I want to go home with you, Heero." She reached across the center console to touch his arm. "I don't want to be alone tonight, not after what's happened."

She was worried about _him_. She didn't want _him_ to be alone.

He let out a huff but did as he was bid. Her fingers lingered on the fabric of his sleeve for the duration of their ride.

Relena was right about one thing; the kid was certainly messed up in the head. She might even _need_ their protection. But Heero knew a trap when he saw one, and a desperate child was the perfect cover for an infiltrating agent. Relena's incessant kindness was a handicap to his work on good days, but this was worst-case-scenario material.

"Heero?"

He looked over at her, startled out of his thoughts. "Huh?"

She gave him a small smile. "We've been sitting in your driveway for ten minutes…"

He looked up to see his motorbike parked along side them, the stairway to his front door a few feet ahead.

Damn, he sighed to himself. He was exhausted.

"I'm sorry," Relena continued, "about snapping at you earlier." She bit her lip, apologetic. "What happened out there was a shock for all of us, but for you… Aoi, that was your mother's name, wasn't it?"

He nodded stiffly and unbuckled his seat belt.

_The base was on fire, and the colony shook around him as one of the mobile suit fuel reserves exploded. Both his mother and father, or stepfather as he later learned, had been on-duty that day. Sirens wailed._

A wave of nausea roiled his stomach.

He abruptly got out of the car, not bothering to close the door behind him _._ He didn't wait to ascend the stairs or to unlock the door to his flat. As he stepped into the small space, Heero finally felt like he could breath again. Everything was as he'd left it: sparse and orderly. Familiar.

He opened the mini-fridge and extracted a can of soda, popping the tab, but he didn't take a sip. After a moment he set the can down again and gripped the edges of the counter, head bowed, trying to get his bearings.

Relena must have followed him inside— he hadn't even heard the door close. The warmth of her body pressed up against his back, arms snaking around his chest. She held him there for a long, long time, neither of them moving, just breathing together. Heero felt his body relax into her touch.

Whatever the future brought, Relena always made him feel like a pilot with the wind at his back, and they could deal with all the insanity tomorrow. Right now he needed this- needed her.

Heero turned and laid a hand gently upon Relena's back, pulling her nearer and leaning down to capture her lips with a kiss.


	10. Chapter 10

He and Relena parted ways at the office the next morning. She had stayed the night, against his better judgment, but they had arrived early enough to avoid any prying questions from their friends and colleagues.

As she shut the car door, Relena turned back, looked down into the cab from the underground parking garage steps. "Are you going to see her?"

There was no question as to whom she was inferring.

"Yeah. I'm meeting Sally and Wufei. I'll be back later to check on what progress the others have made with the pod." He frowned up at her from behind his bangs. "Are you keeping tabs on me?"

"Heero don't be silly." Her brow furrowed. "I want to see you for dinner, that's all."

He grunted in reply, but nodded, conceding. They'd connect later to confirm.

Relena gave him a smile and a little wave as he drove up the ramp to the road. As he paused the car, waiting for the security swing-arm to rise, he watched her enter the building in the rearview mirror.

Across town at Une's, Wufei was standing outside the front door as the car came up along side the curb. The man looked none too happy, his arms crossed sullenly over his chest, frowning as Heero killed the engine and got out. Straightening his jacket, he squared his shoulders as he jumped the curb, coming up the front steps.

"Sally's inside," the other pilot supplied before he had a chance to ask. "She's looking at the kid right now."

"You're not in there?"

" _Someone_ had to stand guard."

Heero let out a huff, reaching down for the door handle.

"You really messed up, you know."

At Wufei's words, Heero paused mid-motion, and said darkly, "What was that?"

"You shouldn't have brought her here," Wufei grumbled, his back leaning against the house. "We have offshore bases for incidents like these. Underground bunkers."

Despite how angry Relena had made him the day before, Heero heard himself echoing her words. "She's just a child." And then, straightening up, he added, "You remember what it was like for us back then, right Wufei?"

The man wrinkled his nose, looking out into the street as Heero pulled open the door. A huffy, " _Huh_ " followed him inside.

The door shut with a loud _thwunk_ behind him the same time an excited giggle drifted in from the other room- Mariemaia's, as well as a patient word from Sally. "It's just a stethoscope, don't worry."

Aoi squealed unpleasantly, and as Heero turned the corner from entrance hall into the living quarters, he saw Sally Po sitting on the couch with a girl to either side of her. Mariemaia looked up at him as he paused by the doorframe. She gave him a half smile.

"Aoi's like a new puppy."

Heero blinked. Something rustled in his chest; some unknown feeling.

"Don't get too attached."

Mariemaia's jubilance deflated by a degree or two. She shrugged, peered back over to where Sally raised the stethoscope, and her hand, off the girl's back.

"Well, her body seems physically normal… despite the obvious," the woman whispered, raising a hand scanner to the metal port at the base of the girl's neck. Aoi fidgeted, trying to lean away as Sally's fingers brushed her skin, touching the ring embedded there.

"It's nothing I've ever seen before," she murmured, the computer pad beeping a negative as it tried to bring up technology of similar design. Sally sighed with a laugh. "Apparently neither has our database." Aoi whined. "Hey now, your okay." She placed a gentle hand on Aoi's shoulder, to which the girl reacted as if waiting for a blow to fall. Sally retracted. "Ah, well, why don't we take a break then, alright?"

The woman stood, the shoulders of her Preventer's dress shirt crinkling as she turned to him, catching Heero's eye.

"Report?" He asked.

"Her growth has been stunted by early childhood undernourishment, but that was well before she was connected to her craft. Despite the strange hardware, that pod has kept her healthy. Physically speaking."

"Mentally speaking?" He asked quietly as the other agent came around to stand closer. Mariemaia followed Aoi as the girl slipped off the couch and padded quietly over to the fish tank, pressing her face against the glass.

Sally pushed a few wisps of hair behind her ear. "She's been deprived of normal human contact and stimuli, that's for sure. Personal interaction is difficult for her. But she knows our language, and picks up mimicry pretty fast." They watched the girl try and grab the flittering fish as they swam by the glass. "But I don't think she's ever been on Earth before, or the colonies, at least not knowingly. Wherever she lived they kept her confined."

Sally looked resigned, uncomfortable. Heero didn't know how to feel about any of this.

"I need to take a blood sample," she added, "but Wufei wouldn't come inside." She gave Heero a look that conveyed just how childish she thought her partner was behaving. "It's not that he's heartless, he's just nervous. Hell, so am I if we're being honest."

Sally dropped the medical equipment back in her bag, stooping down low to stealthily extract a plastic cylinder and a vacuum packaged hypodermic needle. "Based on what I've seen, I'll need someone to hold her down. I don't know how she'll react, but if it's anything like when I simply took her temperature…"

Heero took a breath and nodded. "Understood."

"Mariemaia?" The girl turned at Sally's voice. "Could you take Aoi to the kitchen table?"

The redhead nodded, cupping the girl's arm. "Come on, this way."

Hiding the syringe behind her back, Sally followed, Heero trailing behind. As the two girls perched themselves on a pair of chairs, Heero came around behind the target. The girl bristled at his presence, turning her head slowly to look up at him.

Her lips quivered. "Zero?"

Heero frowned, reaching out and clamping his hands down on either side of her shoulders, rooting her to the spot. She jerked violently, but held his gaze as if transfixed.

"Arm out," he commanded, perhaps a little more gruffly then he'd intended.

She did as she was told, extending it upon the table, turning so the pale white underside of flesh faced the ceiling. When Sally reached out to tie a strip medical tape above her elbow, gently holding her wrist while she cleaned a patch of skin with an alcohol swab, Aoi turned back to stare, head cocked to one side. Everyone froze, gauging her reaction.

"It won't hurt," Sally assured her, glancing up at Heero. He knew exactly what that look meant. _If she struggles, hold her down._ He dipped his chin in acknowledgement.

But when the cap of the needle came off, the bright metal glinting in the light streaming in from the window, the girl did not react. She watched, her wide, bright eyes following the hollow tip as it descended down towards the smooth, slightly wet patch of skin.

Heero stared too, although Mariemaia turned her head away, as the needle made the skin pucker down before piercing it. Aoi did not move. She did not struggle. She did not lash out. She watched. Like she was use to it all.

"See? That wasn't so bad, was it?" Sally spoke softly, kind eyes searching the girl's face for any discomfort, and finding none.

Heero's jaw clenched. She couldn't stand contact of any kind, but the needle didn't bother her?

His heart pounded so fiercely he could feel it in his palms on Aoi's shoulders.

Why did that make him feel so … uncomfortable? It wasn't like such a reaction was foreign to him. He'd been nearly the same way after all the times Doctor J had—

It only took a moment to fill the small vial with dark red blood. She was at least _part_ human, he thought with a twinge of relief. The syringe pulled away, cotton ball pressed to the small dot of blood welling to the surface.

Heero let his hands drop. "When will you know the results?"

"I should know her blood type as right away," Sally replied, disengaging the needle into a safety cup and capping the vial with a stopper. "Other than that I'm not sure. It's all exploratory at this point. Une said she could stay here as long as needed."

"Do you need a ride back to the office?"

She shook her head

Heero had intended to leave immediately, but he lingered despite himself, watching the three women converse. Sally was testing Aoi's knowledge on current events of the last decade. Who fought in the war? What was Operation Meteor? When Aoi couldn't answer those, it devolved into more simplified inquiries. What's your favorite food? What's your favorite color? The girl was confused by every single question, even her name, running through the now familiar list of ' _Heero Yuy, Zero, Aoi Clark,'_ before looking like she was about to cry out of frustration.

"Who is Xen Ferox?" Heero asked after a moment's pause from the back of the room.

At that Aoi brightened, but it was a strange, almost manic kind of smile.

"…Papa."

The room was quiet.

Heero doubted that. If Ferox had been her minder then of course she'd confuse him for her real father.

Sally looked over at him. "We took samples from Ferox's during processing. I'll cross reference the results, see if we can confirm anything."

"Roger that."

At that moment, Heero's cell phone rang, drawing him out onto the porch. Wufei eyed him as Heero saw the name _Duo Maxwell_ and swiped his finger across the screen. He put it on speaker in an effort to pacify his comrade.

"Go ahead."

Duo's voice came over. _"Hey, hey there Heero! You at Une's?"_

"Yeah." He glanced at the other agent briefly. "Wufei's here too."

" _Wu-man! How's it hangen?"_ But before Wufei's lips could draw into a thin line of dislike, indicating an snappish retort, Duo kept talking, and he didn't sound so chipper. _"So...Trowa and I are having a bit of a problem..."_

"What kind of problem," Heero deadpanned.

" _Like, we can't get into this stupid thing! That kind of problem!"_

"Incompetent…" Wufei mumbled.

" _Hey!"_

Heero frowned. "What do you mean 'get into it'? It's already been opened."

" _We can't get anything to turn on. It's completely dead. And we can't break into the damn thing because the skin's practically as hard as Gundanium."_

Gundanium…

From somewhere near the microphone, Quatre piped up, " _It's some kind of plastic infused with metal. We're not sure of its components just yet."_

"What are you trying to tell me?"

Duo groaned, _"Ahhh, I think we're gonna need the girl."_

Wufei sucked in a breath and held it. He and Heero locked gazes.

" _We think she's the only one that can turn it on,"_ Quatre finished.

"We'll leave right now," Heero said quickly, ending the phone call just in time to cut off Wufei's cry of indignation.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

Heero glared. "We need to know what our enemy knows. There's no time for second guessing."

"But _she_ could be our enemy!"

"Wufei…"

"I'm not going to be a part of this madness," Wufei said curtly, suddenly flippant as he uncrossed his arms and walked down the steps. As he did so, Sally poked her head out the door.

"What's with all the yell- Wufei?" She saw him pull out his keys, heading for the street. "Wait, Wufei!"

Heero held open the door as Sally ran down to try and talk sense into her partner.

From inside, Mariemaia hung back. "What's going on?"

"Get your things," he said, glancing back to see Sally holding Chang's arm, as if to keep him from floating off. "We're leaving."

"All of us?"

"Yeah."

In the end, Po couldn't convince her partner to stay, and he had taken their vehicle with him to some unknown place. Sally was silent in the front seat of Heero's cruiser for the duration of their ride, looking out the window as Mariemaia barked radio orders from the back seat. He didn't ask where she thought Wufei had gone off to, but he assumed it wasn't back to the office.

Mariemaia's voice snapped him back to reality. "I dislike that station. Change it."

"Change it," Aoi mimicked the same regal tone, crossing her arms over her chest to mirror the redhead.

A muscle under Heero's eye twitched as he tracked through static news channels to find them music.

They parted ways in the lobby. Sally was off to the lab, nodding her head and giving Heero a murmur of thanks before turning her back.

"Is she alright?" Mariemaia asked in a low voice as they rounded the corner toward the elevators. She kept a firm grip on Aoi's hand, making sure the girl kept pace.

"Don't worry about it," Heero murmured, punching one of the basement buttons, "It's adult stuff. Boring."

When they arrived at the mechanical testing lab, Duo first seem surprised at the red-headed extra tagging along, but then was immediately pleased.

He tipped up onto his toes. "Ho-oh! It's the brat!"

"Hey!" Mariemaia snapped.

"Oh, didn't see you there! I was talking to Heero, course." He flashed the girls a grin. Mariemaia chuckled, and Aoi mimicked, although no one could tell if she actually found it funny. "You ready to hook her up?"

From across the room, Trowa called out, "I was thinking we could preform some computer simulations first, before we link her with the onboard system."

"Ah," Duo scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "good idea."

"Come with me?" Quatre knelt before the white-haired girl, taking her hand and pulling her away.

Heero watched as they guided Aoi over to a little swivel chair sitting before a small computer bank, little electrode wires hanging off one side, similar to the OZ testing system he and Quatre had been hooked up to on the Lunar Base.

A swift jab to his ribs broke his concentration, and he saw Mariemaia looking up at him with a pout. "I want to go to the vending machine."

Heero shrugged. So?

She glowered like a spoiled child, and held out her hand. "Well?"

His eyebrows jumped.

"Here, kid, I gotcha." Duo fished some crumpled banknotes out of his back pocket and pressed them into her outstretched hand. He watched Treiz Kushranada's daughter stick out her tounge in Heero's direction before turning to the door and slipping into the hall. Duo chuckled, "What a brat."

"Hey." Trowa beckoned them over to where Aoi sat in front of the computer screen. The brow over his visible eye pulled down as Quatre booted up the program.

They'd already adhered little electrode patches to the girl's forehead, and the sight made Heero tense as he and Maxwell approached.

"Now," the blonde said in a sweet voice, indicating to the joystick consul control, "just put your hands on… oh."

Aoi reached out automatically, looking strangely calm and slightly bored.

Quatre tried a smile, but it looked a little worried. He chuckled. "Seems like she knows just what to do. I'm going to go ahead and start her up."

The girl said nothing, but her hands gripped the controllers a little tighter. Heero tilted his chin down, glowering as the computer cycled code before a familiar targeting simulation brightened the black background.

A swarm of information began to appear, from heat signatures to enemy targeting systems, albeit at a low level of immediacy. One by one the girl flitted her fingers over the joystick buttons, maneuvering her 'craft' to lock on, take aim, and eliminate her enemies.

Too simple.

"Is she at level One?" Heero asked, a few paces behind where the other three were leaning in to watch. Trowa turned just his eyes toward him, nodding. "Put it up to level Four."

The monitor's displays became increasingly erratic; unpredictable. Heero sidestepped to watch the girl's face. Her eyes were still vacant, faraway, but her pupils had dilated. Her hands tensed and released, each finger muscle thrumming on the buttons like a concert pianist. Even when she took damage, the first direct hit from an enemy that'd got too close, she regained control and blasted them away.

But she was struggling.

"Go up one more."

The screen blipped a _Level 5._

Aoi was fighting to keep up. Maybe not in her posture, or in her facial expression, but Heero could see tension begin to sing down her arms.

The ordeal went on for at least forty minutes, in which both Duo and Quatre had wanted to shut it down. Heero denied them, pressing Aoi on. She was uncomfortable, but she hadn't topped out yet.

Heero watched, the muscle memory of his own body pulling at the controls, the images of days-long battles, flashing through his head.

It was incredible.

But as they came to fifty minutes, the pilot was overcome. Enemy suits had chipped away at her damage limit, and the number finally dwindled down to zero.

_Simulation Terminated_

The girl was sweating, breathing heavy.

As the start-up screen flicked back on, and before any of them could get a word off, Aoi lifted her hand to the back of her neck and seemed to realize the metal port was vacant. She turned in her chair and looked at Heero, her voice rough with strain. "Integration unsuccessful. Incomplete or inferior system has lead to poor performance."

Heero frowned.

A sudden knock at the door drew the room's collective attention. Sally poked her head inside the lab as she said quietly, "Heero?" He turned. "Mind if I borrow you for a moment?"

Without a word he walked quietly to the door, although he knew the others were staring at his retreating back. He could practically feel Aoi's gaze.

"What is it?" He asked in a low, quiet voice after the door closed behind them and they were left alone in the hallway together.

Sally swallowed, lifting a file in her hand. "The girl's lab work." He reached for it, but she pulled her hand back. "Heero…"

His gaze darkened, suspicion skittering down his spine. He stood up straighter, squaring his shoulders. "What's is it?"

"…We found inorganic structures in her blood work." She took a breath. "Almost like… scaffolding. Small mechanics her cells have adhered to. Like her basic DNA frame was mechanically printed, and her cells grew around it."

It was strange, but it didn't surprise him. That must have been why integration with her onboard system was so critical.

Sally shifted her weight. "…And…"

Heero blinked. "Huh?"

There was _more?_

"Well," she looked at the folder, and then caught his gaze, "You're aware we have medical files on all the staff here, including you Gundam pilots."

He nodded slowly, a frown pulling his eyebrows together.

Sally pursed her lips, and it reminded him of how Wufei had looked on the porch. "She… She has some of the same genetic markers as you do, Heero."

He stared at her, his expression blank, not a muscle in his body tensing or twitching.

When he hadn't responded, hadn't moved, she tried again. "Heero?"

"What are you saying?" He asked sharply with a dark chuckle, like it was funny. It wasn't funny. "That she's some kind of clone? A twin?"

Completely ridiculous.

But Sally was already shaking her head. "No, no, it's nothing like that. She's your sister, Heero."

His sist—

Her words made the smirk fall right from his face, faster than if he'd been punched in the gut.

"Well," Sally amended after a moment, "Aoi is your _half_ sister. On the maternal side. Your mother's—"

"I know what maternal means."

She gave him an sympathetic look, but before she could speak, give her condolences, congratulations, apology—he didn't know which, nor did he care, to be honest— Heero murmured, "…Ferox," one hand clenching into a fist.

This was all that monster's doing.

His jaw clenched so tight it hurt.

Sally swallowed compulsively before saying,"You're not allowed to see him any more."

Heero made a low noise in the back of his throat. A growl.

"I'm sorry, but the Commander says you're barred from speaking with the prisoner from here on out."

_What?!_

" _Why?_ "

"You'd be compromised. I'm… sorry, Heero."

He struggled to keep his breath even.

Une knew. Of course Sally would had notified their superior before notifying him. And he was already under suspicion from the top; he'd been neglecting their meetings, her _checking up on him_. But he didn't need Une babying him, _not right now_.

And yet…

There was this little voice contradicting his pride. If the circumstances were swapped, if he were in the lead, Heero would have reacted just the same. It was simple strategy. The logical choice. When a member of the ranks threatens to behave erratically, reel in the leash.

It just…

He'd learned how to function as team player over the years, at least well enough to get the job done... but this was different. This was crisis. This was when, during the war, he'd have acted on impulse. Acted on what he felt was _right_ at the time.

And now?

Right now he wanted to choke the life out of Xen Ferox.

But he couldn't. He had to follow the rules of this little army reserve he'd signed up for.

And because of…

_"You're not going to kill that poor man, are you?"_

…other reasons.

But… but his _mother's—_

"…at her again?"

Heero looked up, catching Sally's gaze.

"Huh?"

Sally tilted her head, smiling softly. "Aoi. The girl. Do you mind if preform a follow-up evaluation? While we were able to identify her maternal heritage, her father's bloodline is still unknown. I wasn't Ferox."

"No," he said shortly, "I don't mind," and stepped aside. Why was she was asking for permission? The girl wasn't anything to him. She was just some… machine. Some half-child.

_Half a child. Half his blood._

Heero lingered in the hall, staring at the floor. Sally's words hadn't felt real, even now…

On his mother's side. His mother. Aoi.

But then, the father?

Seis? Or someone else?

No, Seis worked for OZ. They'd have his files too. It was another. It had to be someone else.

Heero's back hit the wall. His legs were going to fall right out from under him.

There came a sudden shuffling noise from down the hall. Heero's head whipped to the side, hand flying for his firearm. The tension disappeared as he saw a bit of red hair peeking out from around the nearest corner.

He huffed, and holstering his gun. "I can see you."

Mariemaia moved out into the hallway. Her face burned, and she wouldn't look him in the eye.

"Took you a while."

She gulped. "I went to visit some of the others…"

"You heard?"

"Everything," she admitted in a small voice.

Heero let out a long breath, raking a hand through his hair as he straightened up. He couldn't show his weakness. Not now. Not here.

Mariemaia moved toward him as he passed. "Wait, where are you going?"

He brushed by her shoulder, murmuring, "I need to speak with Une."

"What do I tell the others?"

 _I don't care_ , he thought, and was surprised he meant it, but he left her question hanging in the air as he took the next corner to the elevators.

On the way up to Une's floor, his cellphone buzzed, but he let it ring through and didn't check the caller. Heero stared at the display screen as if incredibly interested at the climbing floor numbers. Eventually the lift came to a halt, and the doors opened up to the hallway. Heero almost walked into the very person he was trying to find.

Une's lips parted in surprise, stepping back to let him out. "I was just coming to find you."

"I'm here now."

"Yes, well," Une bowed her head slightly, and her expression became softer. "My office, please?" Heero lead the way to her corner. Une shut the heavy door behind him, motioning to her visitor's chair.

Heero shook his head. "I'm not staying."

The Lady made a soft ' _hmm_ ' sound as she slipped back into her chair and woke her computer.

She didn't press him, so Heero continued, "I already talked to Sally."

"I see..."

"I know you've taken me off the Ferox case." Heero glanced out the office's large window, the busy city carrying on below. "I understand why, and I'm not going to beg you. I'm not going to throw a fit like some spoiled child."

Une sighed through her nose. "Heero..." He stared hard at the glittering skyscraper windows across the street. She shifted in her chair. "That wasn't what I wanted to see you about. In fact, I need your advice."

Heero turned. "Huh?'

The woman was frowning down at her paperwork. "I could give a damn less about Ferox right now. I'm worried about—"

His heart pounded unchecked.

"—the girl." Une looked up at him. "I'll keep that coward locked in a cell twenty-four seven until I ship him off-planet. But Aoi. She needs our protection. You forget this man was the leader of a cult. What did Trowa and Duo learn from their infiltration? What exactly was Ferox telling his followers?"

Heero swallowed. "I don't know."

In all the confusion, they hadn't debriefed.

Une shook her head, exasperated. "That's the problem with you pilots, you never read the case files." Heero frowned. "So," she continued, "what do we do about her?"

What would be the most logical choice?

"Keep her where she's hidden."

"And then?"

Why was she asking _him?_

"You're in charge, you make the call."

Une's eyebrows jumped. "I have to ask, Heero, considering she's your…"A pained expression broke through his impassive mask, flickering briefly across his face, clenching his jaw and tightening his eyes. Une saw, and didn't finish, asking instead, "What did you find in terms of her abilities?"

Heero laid a hand on the back of he chair, perhaps to ground himself. "Quatre ran the standard training simulation. She's good. Very good." His voice pitched lower, "But her linkup… she could be better, if connected to the right computer."

"… do you mean a mobile suit?"

Heero looked down and shrugged. Maybe. But testing would be impossible. There weren't any functional mobile suits left that he knew of. After so many years the government had purged the reserves many times over, and even if they _could_ find one, it would be no better than an antique; the on-board computer wouldn't be advanced enough to support her. "The only system we've seen her integrate with is the pod, and it doesn't look combat ready."

They needed more intel.

Une seemed to read his mind. "I'll have one of the others pilots question Ferox again right away. Now that we know a little bit more about her we can use it as leverage."

Heero nodded curly. "I'll… go read the briefings. There might be something we can use."

It killed him to be sidelined, but he wasn't the only agent capable of interrogating a prisoner.

Une smiled. "That would be extremely helpful, thank you." He turned to go, but Une stopped him with her soft voice.

"You're strong, so much like Treiz…" tailing off, her gaze flicked down to the photos on her desk and back up again. Her jaw set. "But you're not immune. You're not unbreakable. This news… Aoi… it's chilling. I'll understand if you need some time off…"

He showed her his back, swallowing a sudden lump in his throat as he made for the exit, his voice cold.

"I'm fine."


	11. Chapter 11

_I'm fine._

The words echoed in his head.

It had been a lie.

Heero found solace in his office. Turning out the lights, booting up the computer, it felt like he was sitting in Zero's cockpit. It felt familiar. It felt safe.

It was then, and only then, that he allowed himself to be overcome. Tipping his head into his hands, breath erratic, Heero twisted his fingers in his hair and tried to calm himself.

It didn't work.

_His sister. His half sister._

But where had she come from? Where was she born? Who was her father? What was her purpose?

And what did it mean for _him?_

Memories of a frowning young boy looking up into the face of a grinning old man, the boy's own image reflected back at him off the mechanical eye sockets. The snap of a metal claw.

No, it meant nothing. He'd only met Doctor J by chance. It wasn't fate. It wasn't some clandestine plan.

Odin had been dead not twenty-four hours… killed by is own army.

No, no, no, they were just cleaning up Odin's mess. General Septum taking revenge for his near-assassination, that was all.

Aoi had merely been a failed experiment. An aborted add-on to Operation Meteor. Ferox was just playing with him. Toying with him. It didn't mean anything.

It would be fine.

His gut twisted.

Another lie?

"Damn it."

What felt like moments later, although more than an hour must have passed, his cellphone buzzed.

Duo, who had called him earlier in the elevator, had just texted him.

_Trowa and I are heading to the cellblock. Aoi is with Quatre and Sally. They ran more diagnostics. That pod's not combat ready, its only purpose must have been to keep her alive._

Well, that was good news.

So, Une had sent the pair to interrogate Ferox a second time, huh? And Maxwell wasn't as clueless as he seemed either. Even if Heero couldn't be there in person, his teammate knew that the security camera feed was easily hackable from the inside. Maybe Heero could install an audio subroutine as well. The cameras had come standard, fitted with tiny microphones. All he had to do was insert the code to access the recording program.

It took him less time to set the whole thing up then it took Duo and Trowa to actually get there. Easier than hacking into the colonies' internal stability systems if he was being honest

An empty interrogation room came up on screen a second later. Except…

The image wavered, distorted, for half a second.

"The hell?" Heero murmured, rapidly depressing the ESC key.

But it was back to normal before he could even grasp what had happened. Had it… had it been his imagination?

Bringing up a separate terminal next to the camera feed, he checked the source code.

No, it appeared to be normal; running smoothly.

Heero leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. It was all the tension, all the stress finally getting to him. It was making him see things. A nagging voice in the back on his head told him not to dismiss his instincts to easily, but his thoughts were quickly diverted as one of the two doors opened up and Ferox was ushered inside by that punky-haired guard he'd seen at the Embassy. She locked his wrists down to the metal chair before exiting quickly.

As Heero adjusted the laptop's volume, the door on the opposite side of the room creaked open. He watched as both Duo and Trowa filed in. Trowa took a seat opposite the metal table, Duo standing behind him, glaring in Ferox's general direction.

"Ah," Ferox sounded a bit disappointed as he took a good look at the pilots; "Yuy isn't here to greet me today? Don't tell me I scared him off..."

Duo made a curt ' _pffft'_ sound. "Him? Scared by you? Get real."

Ferox shrugged as high as his binds would allow him to.

Ignoring their banter, Trowa said calmly, "There's nothing for you to hide anymore. We decoded your diary. We collected the target. We know what she is."

A grin split across the former scientist's face. "Aoi is a special girl, is she not? One of my finest creations."

" _Creations?_ " Duo blurted. "That's a human life you're talking about."

Ferox sighed, closing his eyes and raising his brows, a disappointed frown pulling at his lips. "And I suppose you want to know _everything_ now, is that right? Don't tell me you couldn't figure it out for _yourself_?" Before either Trowa or Duo could get a word out, the man continued, sighing like he'd been beaten. "Alright, alright, I'll give you three questions."

Duo scoffed.

"This a game to you," Trowa said, deadly serious.

"Oh no, oh no, this is one grave situation indeed." The glint in his eyes hinted otherwise. "But it would be too easy if I gave the whole thing away at once, don't you think? Now, how much have you learned? Enlighten me, please."

"We're aware of her basic nano-structure," Trowa answered evenly. "We know she's meant to integrate into a computer system using her biomechanics, and that she's uniquely adept at combat."

"Hmm… I see, I see. Now, was there a question in there somewhere?"

Duo grunted angrily. "What is she, really? "

"Ah," Ferox looked up towards the ceiling. "That's fair inquiry." He was silent for a beat, as if collecting his thoughts, before he spoke. "While you Gundam pilots were uniquely trained for combat, you were still incomplete. Humans merely _controlling_ machines. Aoi was a bridge between the two. A pilot who could link her very brain to the suit's onboard computer; receive immediate feedback straight into her cerebral cortex. The theory worked too well," he sounded disappointed, "my colleagues deemed her ultimately disadvantageous to the cause."

Heero recalled how adamant Doctor J and the others had been about the dangerous mobile doll system.

"…and so her project was scrapped," Ferox concluded with a regrettable sigh and a shake of his head, "but I wasn't heartless. I couldn't destroy her. I jettisoned her life-support system into a deep-space orbit. I knew she would eventually return home. Unharmed. Those little machines are quite capable of building and regenerating on their own," His face lit up, and where his hands rested on his chair, he waggled a finger. "Look, I even gave you that last bit of intel for free. Don't say I wasn't ever generous."

Both Trowa and Duo were silent, the former ruminating stoically, the latter rather taken aback.

Heero gripped the edge of his office chair, wishing he could be down there.

Duo raised a hand thoughtfully to his chin, head tilted toward the side, thinking out loud. "But… what was her purpose? Who was she suppose to fight for?"

Ferox's eyes narrowed. "I was long gone before your mentors changed their minds about The Barton Foundation. At that time I had been acting on their original orders. Oh," he said, when Trowa cast Duo an angry look over his shoulder, "was that not your second question?" A dangerous smile twisted his lips. "That time, I wasn't being generous."

 _Their original orders_.

So, Aoi was meant to aid in the conquest of Earth?

But that would be impossible now. Aside from the life support systems the pod was useless.

Unless…

"Ask him about a mobile suit," Heero hissed into the darkness, as if the others could hear him. If she was part of the original Operation, then some kind of mobile suit must have been at least partially built. Desperate for the answer, Heero pulled out his phone and began to formulate a text.

They had one question left, and Heero had no doubt that Ferox would stick to his word about only allowing three. Beside, what could they threaten him with? They couldn't torture him, they couldn't kill him; he was already being held in detention indefinitely.

Despite what his fingers typed, a different inquiry burned inside his chest.

Why use his mother? _Why?_ What was the point? Why not just recruit another wayward child running from their past? Why his sister? His _half sister_?

It was a selfish question, he knew, but he wanted to bad for them to ask it.

"Now you two better be careful," he heard Ferox say warningly. "Only one chance left."

A moment before his finger went to hover over the _send_ button, Trowa spoke.

"Why the ruse?"

Ferox raised an eyebrow.

Trowa tilted his head, looking over the table up through his bangs. "You certainly roused our suspicion with that little stunt you pulled. The disturbance at the Conference. Why? Why not stay underground?"

Ferox flashed a smile. "Well? I'm sure you've seen the news."

Heero frowned at the looks on the other two pilot's faces.

What had he missed?

The braided pilot scoffed. "Those _fools_ have been running their mouths, that's for sure."

"And the public is listening."

"The pundits like to think so," Duo shot back.

"It's true they have been particularly… vocal since your detainment," Trowa nodded, a small concession. "They think we're going to be saved."

"Not _you_ ," Ferox said, still smiling, but his words were dangerous and dark. "Only those who repent and join our fold." He smacked his lips, appraising. "No, you shall die with no chance of rebirth."

"Why?" Trowa asked in a low voice. "What's coming?"

"Ah, I said _three_ questions, didn't I?"

"Bastard," Duo grumbled under his breath.

Heero shut the lid of the laptop with a loud _snap_.

He needed air.

He thought, for a moment, that he might have been surprised to find Relena waiting in the downstairs lobby. It was with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that he found himself taking a step towards her in earnest. She was sitting primly upon the visitor's chair, ankles crossed, looking serenely unaware of everything that had just happened. It twisted his gut with fear, too, but there was this unknown pull to go to her.

At the sight of him she stood, smile flashing in his direction, "Une said you had the rest of the day off…" The smile quickly faded as she caught a good look at his face. "Heero…?"

He stood stalk sill, shoulders stiff and straight, arms hanging loosely. He didn't move as she reached up to up the side of his face with soft, delicate fingers. He didn't pull away as she gently turned his face to look at her.

Without any prompting, save for the small worry lines pulling between her eyebrows, he said in the same informative tone he might use to update any of the fellow pilots on their mission's status, "She's my sister."

There was no point in keeping things from her. Not from the one person who'd always seemed to work her way under his armor. She'd seen him near death on more than one occasion, and he'd pushed her away more times then he could count.

But not now. This was too big. Too much.

"Heero," her voice broke, eyes wide and worried. "What are we going to do?"

In the end they had forgone the idea of having a night out.

"I'm heading home," he'd said to her, bluntly, as they walked down the steps into the parking garage.

She'd nodded at the idea, "Sounds fine."

As he retrieved the cruiser from its parking space, he realized that… even a week ago, he would have made some comment about how they shouldn't be seen leaving Headquarters together after his being dismissed for the day; that him saying he was going to his apartment didn't include Relena by default. He would have maintained that barrier… but now?

The strange whatever-it-was that he'd made their relationship out to be seemed to pale in comparison to the idea that the child they'd found in the desert… that she…

Upon returning to his quiet, bare apartment—neither had said a word to each other the entire ride— Relena sat with him on the cold floor, facing one another. They had pushed the table over, creating a wide, flat space of hardwood. A small box of re-heated food she'd brought with her from lunch sat between them, but it had been finished over a half our ago.

Relena uncrossed her legs, and then re-crossed them

Heero looked up from where he'd been staring at the empty container, glaring at it like this entire mess was _its_ fault. Even in the darkness of evening, in the fading orange light dampened by the drawn curtains, he could see the clarity in her eyes. And the worry.

"Uncomfortable?"

"I'm fine," she said, catching his gaze, face softening into a smile.

She didn't ask if he wanted to talk about it. Of course, he knew what she was thinking anyway. They'd been together long enough.

"I'm going to protect her," he said finally.

Did he say it out loud for Aoi sake?

Or because he wanted to convince Relena that he wasn't a monster?

Her shoulders tipped down. "Of course."

Something uncomfortable bobbed in his throat as he swallowed.

But there was something else…

"My mother…"

Relena blinked at him.

"Aoi and I have the same mother, but a different father."

She nodded slowly, and sucked in her bottom lip.

"If that's true…"

And then, what his mind had tried to deny, ever since learning about the girl's heritage, but it was the clearest conclusion he could come to—

"…she was bred by OZ as an experiment. And so was I."

Relena's lips parted in surprise. "You don't know that, Heero," she urged, eyes wide as she got to her knees, leaning forward. "You _can't_ know that."

His heart was beating so fast, even as he controlled his panic, smoothed it out into a calm composure; he couldn't stop his pulse from betraying him.

"She's still fifteen. She's our age… from back then."

He'd hit the nail on the head with Sally, and he hadn't even realized it.

" _What are you saying?" He asked sharply with a dark chuckle, like it was funny. It wasn't funny. "That she's some kind of clone? A twin?"_

Twin.

But only partially.

OZ could have… during medical exams…

Had the OZ military been experimenting with _breeding_ soldiers?

Heero had extraordinary abilities, he knew. Normal people couldn't survive nearly Twelve Gs.

Relena's lips shocked him, soft and warm against his own.

"You were completely zoning out Heero," she murmured, her skin brushing his. The empty carton had been pushed to the side; Relena had scooted forward, and their knees were now touching.

He murmured her name, gold-blonde hair falling into his face.

"It doesn't matter what was in the past, I'm here for you."

Wearily, he agreed. "Hn…"

"We'll fight this together."

"Huh?" His chest rose and fell with a puff of air. "Together?"

"Just like before," she said, her hand coming up to ghost along his upper arm. "Maybe, I'm not much help on this one, in the field, but I'm behind you one-hundred percent." She tucked her fingers into his bangs and smoothed them out. "I'll always fight by your side, Heero. Just don't make me fly a mobile suit, alright?" Her eyes crinkled at the joke, but he just stared at her in wonder.

Her body…it was so close…

His hands found her lower back automatically, supporting her, pulling her towards him. "I need you."

Her breath stuttered. "H-Heero?" Like she couldn't believe she'd heard him correctly.

There was a pause—a beat—as he collected his thoughts.

"You make me feel human, Relena."

She laughed, breathy against him, head tilting down, "That's because you _are_."

He woke before the alarm. It was still early enough that fog choked the morning sun, and filtered the light into a pale, hazy glow through the windows. Looking up at the ceiling, Heero felt like he'd just fallen asleep not moments before. Surely he need at least… six more hours.

Shifting his head on the pillow, Relena's sleeping face stared back at him a few inches away. Her lips parted gently as she breathed, the smooth curve of her shoulder shifting as her chest rose and fell.

A small smile tugged the corner of his mouth upward as he leaned over for a gentle kiss.

He'd let her stay that one night and now...

Why?

Why did it feel so stupidly seamless?

Like they'd been doing it for years?

"Heero?"

His voice rumbled, "Sorry." For waking her, he meant. She seemed to understand.

"Mn, it's fine. How are you feeling?" She searched his face as he found her under the sheets, sliding his body over until he was poised above her, hands on either side of her face.

"Good," he said finally, slowly, as he caught her gaze and held it.

A blush crept up her neck. Their physical affection usually consisted of stolen moments, passionately charged and fast-building as they rushed against each other. Disparate, and when life threatened to overwhelmed, with either lust or some other emotionally charged desire. They rarely did… this. What ever this was.

And despite how it felt, how _good_ it felt to press her up against the nearest wall and live out his finally-realized fantasies of their youth… this was better.

"Heero…"

His name was soft as Relena uttered it against his ear as he leaned down to kiss her jawline, feathering his lips up to the spot under her ear and back down again.

A cellphone rang; shrill. His cellphone.

Stifling a groan, Heero leaned his weight over to one knee, arm reaching out to grab at the device resting on the small bedside table.

Sally's strained, almost frantic voice came bursting over the line.

" _It's Ferox! He's gone!"_

Relena's hands paused on his stomach as his body froze above her.

Impossible.

Heero rose to his knees upon the mattress, swinging his left leg over Relena's body to turn and sit on the edge of the bed. As he did so, Relena pushed herself up against the headboard, concern twisting her features.

Heero glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before saying into the phone, "How..."

" _Trowa found a subroutine patched into the main computer. It looks like someone was able to access the Preventer's server, and cut the power."_

A cold feeling dropped into Heero's stomach.

They piggybacked on his surveillance hack….

" _Someone from his flock must have either broken in at that time, or had been disguised as part of the janitorial staff,"_ Sally was saying, " _Une's furious there was a breach. We're working on a trace—"_

"What about the girl?"

Relena's hand came up to rest against his shoulder.

" _She's safe at Une's, for now, but there aren't any leads as to where Ferox might have—"_

"We need to move her to a more secure location. Has Wufei returned?"

" _No,"_ Sally's voice dropped in pitch. _"But Duo's heading over."_

"Roger that. I'm on my way." Heero pocketed the phone as he stood, dressing quickly and grabbed the keys to the cruiser resting on the chest of drawers.

From behind him, a determined voice rang out, "I'm coming with you."

"The hell you are," Heero murmured as he pulled on his jacket and checked that his firearm was loaded, tucking it away into his holster. "You're staying here."

" _I'm coming with you_ ," Relena pressed, pulling on her slacks and butting her blouse as she followed him towards the front door. "Aoi needs someone she can trust, someone she's close to." Her hand bolted out to stay his arm. "We need to move her to a safer location. We can drive to my estate in the country. It's far enough away from the city, no one will be able to find her there."

He didn't shrug her off, but turned just enough to look at her over his shoulder.

Relena's wide-eyed gaze felt like it pierced straight to the core of him. How many times would he leave her behind, only to have her wind up involved, despite his best efforts? Perhaps the best place for her to be was by his side.

Heero nodded, once. "Let's go."

As he followed her quick footfalls down the front steps, unlocking the cruiser and slamming the transmission into reverse as soon as the doors has shut and the engine turned over, Heero Yuy had the distinct impression that he was going to regret this decision.

They pulled up outside Une's the same time Duo was hopping off his bike where he'd pulled up onto the curb, swinging off his helmet with one hand.

"I sure hope you've been working on a plan there, buddy, because—" He caught sight of Relena as she threw open the passenger-side door. "Princess?! The hell you doing here?"

"We're taking Aoi upstate," she answered curtly as they took the front steps two at a time.

"Yeah, but what about Une?" Duo murmured out the side of his mouth, perhaps just as nervous at Relena's involvement as Heero. They still didn't really know what Ferox's true motives were. Relena had been the subject of a kidnapping before; she was still a prominent member of the government. What if Aoi was just a decoy?

"Une will be holding down headquarters. She and Sally are trying to pin down the outside hack," Heero said as he jimmied the door handle, but it was locked. After a few bangs with an open fist, during which Heero stared pointedly at the peephole, and the three heard a telling _click_ before Mariemaia's worried face appeared in the widening crack.

She huffed, annoyed, but there was acute kind of fear reflected in her eyes. "I was _told_ not to open the door for anyone."

They didn't have time for this.

"Where is she?" Heero barked.

Mariemaia didn't flinch at his tone, but her eyes narrowed. "I'll go get her," she replied evenly. When they returned, the pale-haired girl in toe, the redhead grabbed for her coat. Heero stopped her by raising his hand.

"You're not coming," he said, and took hold of Aoi's arm, pulling her out onto the porch.

Mariemaia watched as Relena enveloped the small girl into a tight hug. "But… she's my friend"

"Une would kill me if something were to happen to you." In a lower voice, he whispered. "Where's your firearm?"

"In—in the lock box like you told me to—"

"Get it. Keep it with you. Don't open the door and _stay here_ until this is over. Got it?"

"But—"

Heero glared.

The girl sighed as she stepped back inside. "Roger that…"

Back down the driveway and into the street, Duo tossed the keys over the hood. Heero caught them one handed as he slipped into the drivers seat; the other pilot took passenger side.

As he buckled himself in, Duo looked over his shoulder into the back. "You two ready to go?" Relena issued a determined noise of assent as she made sure Aoi's seatbelt was tight before securing her own. The girl looked thoroughly unaware, maybe a bit apprehensive at the tense energy of the adults around her.

"H-Hero?" the tiny voice questioned.

"Just hold on," he murmured, before gunning the cruiser out into the street.

He planned to take the ring road. It was best to avoid congested city streets where cover would be hard to come by. Moving vehicles were advantageous against stationary enemies, but it was nothing a targeted rocket grenade couldn't take down.

Still, it hadn't been eight whole minutes before Duo said in a low voice, without turning his head from the road, "We're being followed."

Heero glanced up at the rearview mirror to see a gray, unmarked, car with tinted windows no more than three vehicle lengths behind them. "Don't turn around." The cruiser's glass was bulletproof, but there were other ways.

At the next interchange, Heero took one of exits towards downtown.

"Are you crazy?" Duo hissed as his side.

Well, city center _did_ afford some advantages, too. It was easier to disappear, loose the other car amidst the twists and turns of the city streets. It was still early enough that commuter traffic wouldn't be too much of a problem, and as much as the cruiser was a dog on the open highway, it could maneuver around corners well enough if the driver knew how to handle it.

Heero did.

At the bottom of the off-ramp, the light turned yellow.

Heero hit the accelerator, hands gripping the wheel. "Hold on."

Their car skidded around the corner and out into the intersection.

From the back seat, he could hear Relena's sharp intake of breath as they lurched sideways, along with a pleasurable little giggle from Aoi, like it was some kind of carnival ride.

The backend jerked straight as Heero locked out of the sliding turn, righting them again in the far lane. There was a hollow noise as the cruiser's frame dropped back to level.

At a long, blaring honk, Heero looked in the back mirror to see that the other car had ignored the red light completely, causing an SUV to slam on their breaks to avoid a collision.

"Damn!" Duo exclaimed, twisting in his chair. "Now they _definitely_ know we're on to them!"

As a civilian car up ahead depressed their breaks, Heero swerved to the side into the next lane, jamming the gas pedal as they weaved their way through the light traffic.

"How far back are they? Did we loose them?"

Maxwell squinted his eyes, shielding them with his hand as if that would make him see farther. "We left them the dust, buddy! "

They took the next few turns to get off the main road, slowing to a normal, inconspicuous speed.

There was a collective sigh of relief as they slowed to a stop at the next light. Heero gripped the wheel, scanning the street around them.

As the line of cars began moving again, they sped up, entering the intersection, and that's when Heero saw two pinpricks of movement out of his peripheral vision on either side. Fast. Very fast. Like oncoming vehicles that had run the light.

_They were going to pin them!_

Heero hit the gas, missing the trap, and yanked the wheel. The cruiser jumped the curb on the far left side of the one-way street for a second or two before they were under control again. The chase cars swerved at the last minute, one skidding into oncoming traffic, the other turning the right way round and speeding towards them.

Had they been waiting in ambush? How had Ferox deduced their route?

From the back seat, Aoi leaned up to press her face against the window.

"So fast!"

Relena reached up to pull her away, forcibly ducking the girl's head into her lap.

Heero's eyes narrowed.

Did they really have some kind of trace on her? Had he been wrong?

Duo took a good look at the scenery as streets flashed by at incredible speed. "The hell are you taking us?"

"The canal," Heero answered in an even, almost clam tone, despite how hard he took the next corner.

"Hey buddy, news flash, there ain't no _road_ down by the canal!"

"I know. But the pedestrian path is wide enough. "

Relena twisted in her seat. "They're still right behind us!"

"I can see that," Heero murmured, around about the same time something went _za-ping!_ off the metal roof.

"Are… are they _shooting_ at us?" Relena choked out. "But they won't be able to—"

Duo unhooked his seatbelt, pulling out his firearm to check the magazine. "They'll go for the tires! Try and slow us down!"

There was a _crack!_ as a bullet took out one of their taillights.

"You aren't going to shoot _back_ , are you?!" Relena's voice was incredulous.

"Hey hey, Princess," Duo looked over his shoulder and gave her a wink as he pressed a button to slide his window down. "Don'tcha go worrying about little 'ol me." He gripped the top of the door panel and hoisted himself onto the open window ledge.

Bullets peppered the side of the car, cracking against the safety glass. Duo aimed and fired back, trying to get off clean enough shots with Heero weaving in and out of traffic.

_Pop! Pop!_

_Ping!_

There was a falter in the return fire, and Heero heard Relena's sharp little, "Oh!" followed by Maxwell's string of curses. Heero's eyes darted over to see the upper half of braided pilot still leaning out the window, but clutching his arm, a trickle of blood running down from between his fingers.

He'd been shot.

Heero braced himself as he entered the T-intersection, laying on the horn as their car jumped the curb up into the square. Pedestrians scattered. He tried to avoid the café tables, but more than one ricocheted against their front bumper to clatter against the ground.

"Get the _hell_ back inside, Maxwell," he barked, taking his hand off the wheel for the briefest of moments to grip the other's shirt and wrench him back inside. Duo slumped into the chair, teeth grit, but he had enough sense to buckle himself in.

Ahead of them, far away but closing in fast, was the steep stone staircases leading down to the pedestrian promenade, the glistening, rushing waters of the canal beyond that.

Too fast.

Heero began to break. With just enough deceleration they could coast down the cement steps onto the walkway below. But as he did so, the closest chase car, which had followed them up out of the road, sped up. A moment before they hit the first stare, business men and women flinging themselves away, they were lurched forward by a hard tap against the rear bumper's left side.

The cruiser began to fishtail.

They weren't at top speed, thank goodness, but there was enough momentum throwing them sideways that when the body of the cruiser began to turn, they started to roll.

Heero sucked in a bracing breath, heard Relena's sharp gasp of surprise, and Duo's swallowed curse, before the crunch of metal chassis hitting pavement filled the car around them

In some horrible slow motion, the sky disappeared and reappeared again and again as they tumbled down sideways, a hard barrel roll until the stairs came to a stop and they slid over the pavement.

With a final crunch, the wheels lodged against the promenade's metal railing, posts of iron their only barrier between the walkway and the rushing water of the canal below.

A groan of metal- and with a _thunk_ the cruiser settled against the ground, one set of wheels still spinning in the air where the car lay on its side.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Heero took stock.

The windshield was cracked, but had stayed intact. If they had been going any faster…

They'd come to land partially on the driver's side, pinning Heero and Aoi's doors closed. _Those_ windows were shattered. Heero groaned, propping himself up with his arm against the panel that was bent inward. He felt chunks of glass scuffing up the sleeve of his jacket. As he struggled to right himself, battling gravity, Heero quickly catalogued his potential injuries.

Twisted ankle. Possible hairline fracture to a rib. Bruised hip.

Something warm and wet matted his hair where his head had hit the door on their way down. His fingers came away greased with red.

"Is everyone alright?" Heero tried to unhook his belt but the mechanism was crushed between the seat and, well, concrete.

He turned to see Duo's face screwed up with pain as he clutched his wounded arm, hanging from his belt. He looked dazed and pale, like his eyes weren't seeing anything at all.

Turning his head as far as possible, Heero saw something that made his breath hitch, eyes widening.

Relena was limp against her restraints, head fallen down and sideways, arms slack. A curtain of fine, golden hair hid her face from view.

She… she didn't look injured. There was no blood. But then… the trauma could have been internal.

Heero's chest heaved with a ragged breath. "Aoi-!"

"Heero." The girl's voice was that eerily calm, cool, and collected tone she'd used after Quatre's test simulation. Gone was all childlike wonder.

And that's when he heard them. Footsteps, at least three pair, coming closer. A shadow suddenly leaned over the front of the car, casting shadow. He squinted, but couldn't see the figure's face through the spider-webbed, scratched glass of the windshield.

With a groan of metal, someone scrambled against roof. As he craned his neck around, Heero could see the butt of a gun swing down towards Relena's already fractured window. He had just enough time to turn his eyes away before a shower of glass fell into the cabin, plinking off the seats.

As Heero wrestled with his restraints, a thick arm reached down to encircle Relena's waist where she hung, a short blade flashed in the figure's free hand as he shredded the seatbelt. Heero tried to reach back, to grab her, but he was still pinned.

Relena's body was lifted out of the car.

"Go it!" Duo exclaimed a moment later, unclicking his seatbelt with a cry of success. Givin the angle however, he came crashing down toward Heero, whose breath was knocked out of him as Duo's knee came into contact with his stomach.

"Whoa," the man groaned, dazed, ignoring the bullet wound in his arm as he righted himself, bracing against the steering column.

Heero sucked in a deep, choking breath as Duo hoisted himself into the back seat.

"You all right there kid?"

Aoi must have at least acknowledged him, because Duo gave a curt, "Good," before he said in Heero's direction, "I'll get the Princess back, no problem."

"Should you be helping _me_ with—"

But Duo was already hoisted himself out of the car via the broken window.

The _idiot!_

As he scrambled out onto the side of the cruiser, Heero could hear him, and then came a cry of surprise—Duo's— before there was a _wham_ followed the dull sound of a body hitting the car and sliding off towards the pavement.

"Damn it," Heero hissed, pushing his shoulder against the retraining belt, feeling the mechanism in the seat start to strain and crack as he exerted all strength possible into making a gap his body could side through.

"Don't move," a voice, a woman's voice, made him turn around. Framed in the broken-out window, a hooded figure peered down, gun trained in Heero's face. "You move, you die. And your friends will die too."

He stilled.

She pointed the barrel into the back seat.

"Or maybe…"

"You wouldn't shoot her," Heero said quickly, but in a low, even voice. "She's why you're here."

"You're right… we need her; our savior. But I would, not fatally, and it _would_ hurt. And then I'll still kill the others." She motioned with the gun, "Now lie back."

He did so, glaring at her.

"Aoi, dear," the woman said sweetly into the back. "It's time to go now."

"But…"

"Daddy's waiting for you."

"D-Daddy?"

"Aoi, no," Heero said in a firm voice.

"Shut up," the woman snapped, and then in a sugary voice, "that's right sweetheart. He wants to see you _so bad._ "

"But I'm stuck," came the girls' voice.

"But you're so strong, Aoi. I know you can do it. Try hard, baby. Don't you want to see Daddy?"

From the front seat, Heero could hear the girl strain against her belt. That strange, almost in-human strength she harbored reared its head, and there was a ripping sound as she all but tore herself from the restraints.

"Good girl," the woman cooed, lowering her free hand down into the cab, careful to keep her firearm trained on Heero's face. Aoi gripped the woman's hand and was hoisted upward, clutching the broken glass of the window, slicing it into her skin without much care and leaving spots of blood on the window stripping.

Heero looked up as Aoi disappeared over the side of the car, hearing the sound of her body sliding over the cruiser's back panel and onto the ground.

The woman smirked.

"Don't go anywhere."

And then she was gone.

Immediately Heero began bracing against the seatbelt with all his strength, a straining grunt shoving passed his grit teeth as the plastic mechanism against the seat began to crack and pull away.

A guttural cry, more growl than anything else, echoed around the cruiser's cabin as the belt suddenly popped loose and Heero was thrown against the sideways steering column from his own strength.

He twisted, wrestling his left foot out crawled into the back seat. He pulled out the firearm that had been pressed hard against his back, took aim at the back window with the heels of his boots, clutched the headrests for support, heaved, and swung forward.

The rear window, already cracked, punched out easily under the force of his blow.

Glass scattered as he rolled onto the pavement.

One knee tucked under, his other leg stretched out for balance, Heero skidded to a stop and squared his firearm at the scene before him.

He blinked. "Huh?"

On the pavement between the bottom of the concrete staircase and where the cruiser had come to a halt, both Relena and Duo's bodies had been laid out, face up. There was a smear of blood next to Maxwell's arm.

Half way up the steps the cloaked woman whirled around. She had Aoi by the shoulder, and as Heero raised his gun, she rested the barrel of her own weapon against the girl's head.

At the top of the stairs one of the unmarked cars idled, waiting.

The woman called out to him, walking backwards up a step, pulling Aoi along. "As you can see your friends haven't been harmed! As promised!"

"Let her go," Heero said firmly.

"We're taking her home! Can't you see that? Back to her father."

"Let her go," Heero said again, advancing one step, and then another.

"Nah-ah-ah," the woman said warningly, twisting the gun. Aoi's face looked void, blank, like she wasn't even aware of what was happening. "She's strong," the woman said, "she wouldn't die from an indirect hit," the gun was lowered to press into Aoi's neck, "but then, if _you_ kill _me_ , who would fix her up again?"

"That makes you what?" Heero spat. "Her technician?" He sidestepped, never taking his eyes off his target, but moving close enough towards Relena's body. He took her limp fingers in his free hand, and reached up to feel her pulse.

Against the pads of his fingers, the heart beat strong.

"Just another devoted follower," the woman was saying, retreating further. Aoi stumbled up too.

To his right, he heard a soft groan. His eyes darted over to where Relena's face twitched into a frown.

She was waking up?

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Aoi had suddenly stopped, her eyes blown wide. She stared at Relena's body on the ground as the Foreign Minister rolled her head to the side and coughed into the pavement. That cold, determined look in her eyes faltered.

Her voice was so small. "H-Heero?"

In that moment, Aoi was just a scared little girl.

"Damn it," Heero heard the woman curse, and her hand left Aoi's shoulder for an instant, digging deep into the pockets of her robe.

There it was. His opening.

Heero fired.

The bullet threw the woman backwards as it sank into her shoulder.

Aoi dropped to her knees with a yelp, arms thrown up over her head.

Heero bolted forward, but even wounded, the cloaked woman was able to scramble around towards the girl. In her hand there was something shiny; silver and circular.

"You forced our hand, Heero Yuy!" She called through a grimace. Heero tried to get a better angle with his gun but they were too close. He couldn't risk hitting them both. "Don't blame us! This could have turned out a whole lot differently!" In one quick movement she gripped Aoi's hair at the back of her head, pushing it down to reveal the girl's neck, and plunged the metal object into the connection port embedded in the skin.

Heero fired, and missed, just past the woman's head. The shot ricocheted off the stone steps.

Aoi's back arched up, arms wide and ridged, body taunt. An open-mouthed silent scream wracked her body, and like when she emerged from her spacecraft, her eyes held a strange, electric glow.

The woman, her hood falling down to reveal messy red-brown hair, scrambled up the rest of the stairs.

Heero fired again, hitting the woman in the leg. She yelped, falling to her knees. For a group of religious fanatics, the others waiting for her in the getaway car didn't try to help. The engine revved, tired squealing away.

"No! Don't leave me!" The woman screeched, arm reaching out as they clamored towards the road.

In the distance, as he took the steps two at a time up to where Aoi had finally collapsed, Heero could hear faint police sirens growing closer.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few bits of plot info have changed in this chapter since it's original upload, beginning mainly with the woman Heero interrogates on the promenade steps all the way to the end of the chapter. I needed to add stuff that would make a few plot strings tie together XD

Sinking to a knee, Heero gripped Aoi's shoulders and turned her over on the steps where she had fallen. He pulled back in surprise, her head lolling to one side. Her pale, soft skin was hot to the touch, feverish, but more so; like a computer terminal that had been running on overloaded. But at least she was breathing.

A scrabbling sound made him look up. The cloaked woman he had shot was trying to pull herself the last few feet up the steps to the square. Curious pedestrians had formed a crowed, but they kept their distance at the sight of smeared blood upon the pavement.

Heero stepped past Aoi and gripped the women by her injured leg, pulling her back down the stone steps toward him. A yelp of pain passed the woman's lip as Heero roughly turned her on he back. He pressed one knee to her chest, reaching out to grab the gun that had fallen from her grasp which he tucked into the back waistband of his jeans.

The faint sirens in the distance grew louder.

"Do it!" The woman rasped, teeth clenched and staring at the firearm, his firearm, pointed into her face. "Kill me!"

Heero gave her a very bored look, but chose not to respond to such nonsense. It wasn't worth the necessary breath.

"Where's Ferox."

She wrestled under the crush of his knee, the collar of her robe hitching, a glint of a gold chain necklace winking up where it rested against the column of her throat.

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"You _don't…_ but it certainly would make things easier."

The woman tensed, her whole body going ridged with fear.

One of his eyebrows jumped. He certainly hadn't _meant_ for it to sound like the threat of bodily harm. What exactly had Ferox told them?

Heero pointed to himself with his free hand. "Who am I?"

Her faced scrunched up into a snarl.

"Surely," he pressed, "you wouldn't be divulging anything _too_ compromising, since I _already know who I am._ "

Glaring at each other, they were silent for a beat. Until-

"Heero Yuy," she spat, "Gundam pilot Zero One. Alpha. You were the best. A perfect weapon. You destroyed the lives of _hundreds."_

Well, he couldn't exactly _argue_ with any of that...

"And now you work for the Preventers organization," the words curled in her mouth like a curse, "an organization that's filled with your former enemies. Former OZ officials, White Fang members, colony rebels; even soldiers who had once supported Mariemaia Kushtrnada's coup d'état! You been neutered into pushing their narrative with the Foreign Minister at the helm. A lie that Earth and Space can unite under some governing body." She scoffed. "Man cannot unite man. Only _she_ can."

Heero blinked.

The… hell was she going on about?

" _She?_ Do you mean the girl? Aoi?"

The woman's eyes went wide.

"You and the other ones like you; the other, failed experiments conducted by the other, flawed Doctors. The Barton Foundation wanted to use you to decimate Earth. The Doctors wanted to use you for the colonies' independence. But they were wrong. All of them. Men can't unite Earth and Space, only _she_ \--" Reverence flashed across the woman's face. "Because she not a part of Man. She's pure. She's perfect. She's a God who will save us all under her iron fist of benevolence." 

With Ferox whispering in her ear no doubt, Heero thought. Like Dakim, and Mariemaia. Except Ferox wasn't going to force the people to fall in line, he was going to use Aoi like a prophet.  

"Listen," he started very, very evenly, cutting his eyes away to gather his thoughts. "Ferox has lied to you. Man must make peace between the Earth and the Colonies. Machines or hybrids or false gods or whatever else are just distractions."

_Distractions..._

The woman's next words were quiet, almost calm. "No. I won't live in that world. Without her Man will only repeat the mistakes of the past. War will always come. Man will always try and best their temporary allies."

He wanted to deny it, he wanted to say her words were false, but...

The woman had gone very still. Looking back, Heero saw that she had turned her head enough to get the gold chain of her necklace into her mouth. A small glass tube, no longer than one joint of his pinky finger, was clutched between her lips.

He knew immediately what that was. And what it meant.

"I won't live in that world," the woman muttered.

She was their _only_ lead.

"Don't!" He barked, hand flashing out to catch the chain, to pull it back. He wasn't fast enough. Her jaw snapped down tight, breaking the capsule between her teeth, tiny glass shards cutting into her lips where the vial splintered. Her triumphant grin smeared red with her own blood.

Heero stood up immediately, taking the weight of his knee off her body. Lips parted in surprise, he watched as the woman's sharp breaths of struggle turned into labored pants, smug smile suddenly contorting with pain. Her body began jerk. Eyes open, but seeing nothing, she arched against the ground, fingers grappling for purchase on the concrete steps.

Fuck.

Foamed spittle burst from the corners of the woman's mouth.

Of all the stupid…

After a few more moments the twitching fingers stilled

Looking down at the body, Heero frowned.

She was that afraid? That adamant about staying true to her cause? Right to the end?

The woman's face, contorted, became slack, although her eyes wide with terror continued to stare unblinking to the sky above.

Now what?

Heero let out a defeated-sounding sigh, looking away only when he felt a gentle touch on his arm.

"Heero…"

His head snapped around to see Relena standing on the step below him. She was scraped up, dirty, but looked otherwise unharmed.

"You're alright." His voice fell rough, scratchy.

She nodded, her hand coming up to touch her neck. "A bit sore in places, but I'll be fine." Her eyes trailed over to the dead woman's body, casting the scene a disheartened look with downturned lips before she knelt by Aoi's side. As she slipped a hand behind the girl's head, he heard her whisper, "It was poison, wasn't it?"

Heero made a noise of assent in the back of his throat. "She was wearing a vial. We have to assume all of Ferox's followers will do the same, if cornered." Heero checked his firearm before sliding the safety back on. He watched as Relena gently pulled Aoi up into a sitting position. His eyes cut away and back again, before he asked, "How is she?"

"She's boiling up," Relena murmured, the back of her hand pressing against the girl's forehead, "like a fever. Only not. Oh-!"

"What is it?" He said sharply, turning towards them both. A part of him wanted to kneel down too, but he held back.

Relena's hand was clutching the back of Aoi's neck. "There's something else here… something I don't think…"

Pulling the girl more fully into her lap, Relena let the small upper body drape over her arm. Aoi's head fell forward, hair spilling over her shoulders, revealing the silvery port. Except… whatever the now dead woman had placed there was still engaged. It looked like a small round dome that fit over the connector. Relena hooked her nails around the edges of the metal rim, but no matter how much she tried to pry it off, the thing wouldn't budge.

"What is it, Heero?"

He shook his head, eyeing the small indicator lights along the rim. Small strips of green, lined up like internet signal bars that blinked from smallest to largest. A charger perhaps?

"Ugh! Man!" They both turned upon the stairs at Duo's loud groan, watching as the man pulled himself into a sitting position, clutching his jaw. "The hell?"

"I'll be right back," Heero murmured, walking back down the steps to where the Preventer's cruiser was still on its side against the canal railing, and to where Duo was still sprawled upon the concrete.

Coming to a stop, Heero saw the braided pilot shake his head, as if it would stop the world from spinning before his eyes.

Heero silently offered a hand, which the other took.

"What happened?" Duo groaned as he was pulled to his feet, his hand clutching Heero's shoulder for support.

"Your rescue attempt," Heero deadpanned, making sure the other was steady before letting go, " it failed."

"Well, _yeah_. Obviously _that_. But… they just let us go?"

"Hn."

Rushed footsteps echoed over the top of the staircase, drawing their attention. Sally, her gun drawn, came into view. A wild moment, where she readied her weapon at their attackers, soon fell away as the she realized the scene was clear.

"You three all alright?" She called, taking the steps down to where Relena was crouching.

"Just peachy!" Duo grimaced. His hand nursed the side of his jaw, where he must have been hooked during his hasty— and poorly executed— ambush from the cruiser.

As they made their way to the bottom of the stairs, Heero asked with a raised eyebrow, "How's your arm?"

The other pilot sniffed. "More than a graze, but I don't think the bullet's still in there. It's stopped bleeding too… oh… well, it's _mostly_ stopped."

"I've got bandages in my car if you need them," Sally said over her shoulder.

Heero watched as the two women attempted to hoist Aoi's body up between them, except there was an almost imperceptible shake to Relena's legs. He quickly stepped in, taking her position at the unconscious girl's shoulders. He didn't want her to feel useless though, so he murmured a quiet thanks only she could hear. Relena stepped away, but smiled. As they climbed back up to the square, Heero asked the other agent, "Wufei hasn't returned?"

Sally bit her lip and shook her head.

One Agent injured. One MIA. Great.

"Trowa and Quatre?"

"Both still back at HQ."

At least there was that.

"We need to take Aoi to a hospital," Relena piped up as they walked up into the plaza. With predictably little regard for own wellbeing, she was letting Duo lean against her, one arm of her ruined suit streaked with the other's blood.

At the top, they could see a barricade of Preventer's vehicles had cordoned off the square from the general public. Already a team of other agents were clearing the area and taking stock of the damage, coordinating with the police, and battling away the surge of reporters looking to capture the mayhem for the evening news.

Duo very consciously moved to block Relena from the camera's view as she ducked into the backseat of Sally's car. They very carefully lay Aoi in after.

"We can't take her to a regular doctor," Heero said at length. "Ferox's men might be staking out the general hospitals in the area."

Sally frowned. "What did they do it her? Weren't they trying to kidnap her?"

He shook his head, brows furrowed as he thought. "Maybe in the beginning but they weren't quick enough. Still…" he looked through the open cruiser door, to where Relena was sitting with Aoi's head pillowed on her scraped-up legs. "They were able to accomplish something in the end."

"You mean that device…?"

"Yeah."

Sally tapped her chin with thoughtfully. "That woman killed herself rather than risk us capturing her. Whatever she knew must have been important."

"I'm not so sure," Heero replied, watching Duo walk around to the trunk, popping the lid and rummaging around for the First Aid kit. "She seemed afraid of us."

"Of _us?_ " Duo's muffled voice echoed back out to them. "We're not OZ."

"According to Ferox, or what he's told his people, we're something much worse."

From the back of the cruiser, Relena breathed, "Worse?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but Heero's phone started buzzing. Swallowing his words, he fished the device out of his pocket and accepted the call.

"Go ahead."

" _Heero!"_

He blinked. "Quatre?" At the other man's frantic voice, a line of worry furrowed his brow. "What is it?"

" _You guys have to get out of there_ _ **right now**_ _, Heero!"_

"Huh?"

" _Trowa and I picked something up on radar a few minutes ago. At first it looked like a piece of space debris had fallen out of orbit but… it_ _ **changed**_ _. Right out of nowhere! It has to have some kind of propulsion system because it's course corrected. We think it's heading for the center of the Capitol!"_

They pinpointed their location? Had the men in the car given Ferox their coordinates? Or was it something else?

Cold dropped into Heero's stomach.

"Turn her over!"

" _Huh?!"_

But he wasn't talking into the phone, he was pointing to Relena, to Aoi. "Turn her over!" As Relena moved the girl's body to one side, he clenched the cell in his hands and spoke directly to the other pilot. "Quatre, listen to me. You saw it. So what is it?"

" _We're not exactly…"_

"I'll take best guesses right now."

" _Some kind of… large craft."_

"Is it a weapon?"

" _We-"_

"Is it a Gundam?"

Silence.

"Quatre. Is it a _mobile suit?"_

" _We're not sure but it's_ _ **big**_ _and it's quick and it's headed in your direction."_

"Roger that." He assured Quatre they'd check-in for an update before he pocketed his phone and turned to Sally. "Start the evacuation procedures." The woman nodded, giving him a small salute before rushing over to the line of Preventers forces keeping the public at bay.

"Heero…" Relena ran her fingers over the device that had been attached to the metal port at the back of Aoi's neck. The small bars of green were fuller than they were before, almost as if they were charging up, or as if some signal was getting… stronger.

"Get her out of the car," Heero barked, gripping the girl's legs and pulling her down the seat, "now."

Duo came around the side, his work shirt pulled up and a bandage wrapped around his upper arm. "But we just got her in there, man!"

"Well, we're taking her out again," he growled back. "We need to move her as far away from the public as possible." With less care then before, Heero slung the Aoi's boy over his shoulder. She flopped against his back, slack arms dangling limply.

Relena was already trying to slide out after, but he stopped her.

"Please…"

She looked up at his soft tone, chapped lips slightly parted, wide eyes blinking.

Heero bent, reaching our to place a hand on her knee. His fingers gave her an encouraging squeeze as he caught her gaze. He wasn't going to snap at her. She was safe, unharmed; there was no need to berate her. Still, he was putting his foot down. Whatever was coming for them, it would be far more dangerous than a car crash.

 _Stay here_.

Relena nodded, even if he hadn't said a word. He saw her swallow thickly as she pulled her legs back into the car.

Heero pressed the gun he'd recovered from the dead woman into her hands. Before she could issue a word of protest, her head already shaking a ' _no'_ , he said, "I'm not saying you have to shoot anyone. Just keep it with you."

_It makes me feel better._

Relena gave him a small smile. "Alright, Heero."

Despite their situation, the urge to kiss the woman sitting before him was almost overwhelming. But then Heero reminded himself about what was coming, the strange girl slung over his shoulder, Quatre's warning.

"But where are you going?" Relena called after him.

He was about to say _'Back down to the canal',_ because there at least there was less chance of collateral damage, but an immense rumbling stole his voice. A roaring sound suddenly began to build out of the background where before it was masked by the sirens and noise of the city streets. It was unmistakable now, echoing off the downtown buildings, making it almost impossible to discern where it was coming from.

At the top of the stairs, Heero stopped dead in his tracks.

Even after the years of Preventer's work.

He knew that sound.

Vernier rockets.

In the same moment that he identified the sound, the girl slung over his shoulder snapped awake. In one fluid motion, with speed that caught even him by surprise, a sharp jab of an elbow to his ribs made his breath hitch, knee buckling just a fraction, and then Aoi's arm was wrapped around his neck, yanking, her bent legs coming into his stomach. Heero was brought to his knees, the breath knocked out from his lungs.

Clutching his stomach, he watched with one eye closed in pain, as Aoi took the concrete steps down in giant leaps of determination.

In one graceful push, little to no effort despite her size, she bounded up in onto the upturned side of the Preventer's cruiser and flung her arms wide.

Was she…

Was she going to jump?

Heero grit his teeth, a noise of frustration in the back of his throat.

He was about to call to her, to order her to _stop_ , when the words died on his tongue.

With a tremendous splash that sent high-arcing spray high into the air, lapping at the top of the railing, an immense object fell from the sky above and into the water below. Glittering black in the sun, there was no mistaking the meters-tall machine standing at attention; it's armor-clad legs knee-deep in the canal.

A Gundam; throwing light off its black plate armor. The mobile suit was immense, at least as big as Wing had been… although it had been a long while since Heero had laid eyes on any mobile suit except for museum pieces. The armor was pitch black, with silvery lines like marionette strings snaking down from the helmet along the arms and legs.

Aoi voice floated back to him on the wind. It was strong, calm. "I must go now. Find Papa."

Heero grit his teeth. "Ferox is _not_ your father!"

"He made me." He could see her lift her hand, fingers clench into a fist. To his horror, the suit mimicked her motion. "He made me what I am. He gave me purpose. He gave me my mission. I must go to him. This suit… it will tell me exactly what I have to do. How to lead."

The device on the back of her neck fell off with a _clunk_ as it hit against the upturned door panel of the car, bouncing onto the concrete below.

The mobile suit raised its arm out towards the promenade, to where Aoi was standing. It gave her its upturned palm the same time the cockpit door fell open.

Empty, awaiting its pilot.

Heero swallowed thickly.

How was it moving on it's own?

A brief memory, Zero taking control of the helm—

Silver hair fanning in the wind, Aoi stepped easily off her perch and onto the Gundam's hand.

"Stop!" Heero called, finally finding his voice, getting to his feet, but the girl paid him no heed. He took out his gun, but what could he do? Shoot her? Shoot his--? She came from the same fucked up program that had devised his own pitiful existence. She'd done nothing wrong.

Aoi didn't look back as she made her way up the machine's arm, jumping nimbly onto the open hatch door. From his angle on the ground it was hard to see, but it didn't look to Heero as if she were sitting back into a cockpit chair. She was standing upright, sinking back into the depths of the mobile suit, her head tilted back, eyes wide, like she were _connecting_ to something.

As the hatch door sealed with a hiss, the Gundam's eyes lit up an electric violet. The suit clenched and strained, savoring the new life it had been given. Aoi had melded with the onboard system, and the immense power she'd shown hints at before was now coursing through both pilot and machine.

"What are you going to do when you find him? What is he going to tell you to do?" He called. "Destroy the city? Kill us all? Meteor is _over_. Soldiers like you and me-" His stomach twisted. "We're not needed anymore. Not like this."

The Gundam stared at him impassively, it's eyes glowing.

Aoi's voice, quiet and deadly, projected out from the helm. _"Meteor may be over, but the people are not yet free."_

"Free to be under _your_ rule?" He called back, not desperate, but certainly imploring. "That's a false freedom."

But.. wasn't every freedom a false one? No one could ever be truly _free_.

Even the Colonies needed to rely on the Earth, and vise versa. Like a strangely symbiotic relationship.

It was like that with people, too.

Freedom was what he had been striving for. Freedom from his past, from the destruction his former life had created. Freedom from whatever might tie him down or make him weak or take away from his missions and assignments.

But he _couldn't_ be free from it; it was already a part of him. He couldn't cast aside his former life because the life he had now was built upon its foundation. The people he'd come to know, the relationships he had formed, they were wrapped up in the center of it all, along with who he had been in his youth and who he could become in the future.

The only thing he could do, really, was move forward. On his own terms. 

A memory; watching Aoi's bright, wide-eyed face pressed up against the aquarium glass at Une's.

Heero balled his hands into fists, and when he spoke next, it was decidedly calm. "You've finally made it to Earth after so long, given a chance to live in peace, and you're going to throw it all away?" Relena, on his side during after the war, a quiet companion even on the days he refused to let his guard down. "You can't get rid of who you are," he added, and he wasn't even sure he was talking to the girl anymore, "but you can change what it is you want. Who it is your living for."

" _Stop!"_

The scared, cracking voice broke through from the cockpit.

And then harder, harsher, _"Stop talking_ _ **right now**_ _! I have purpose! Father_ _ **gave**_ _me that! I'm going to lead the people of Earth and Pace to salvation!"_

The mobile suit moved with swift precision, so fluid it made his breath catch in the back of his throat. The right arm reached up behind the left shoulder, disengaging a weapon holstered there with the hiss of hydraulics.

A beam rifle, smaller than Wing's but no doubt equally as powerful, swung down to be leveled toward the promenade. Towards him.

Heero glowered down the barrel, wider than he was tall, pointed not but a few feet from his face. Looking up into the rifle's depths, he could see nothing but black, and if Aoi chose to fire, he might be able to catch the telltale sight of condensing energy way back in the darkness before being completely obliterated.

And not just him.

A blast this close would vaporize everyone in the square. Even if Relena did stay by the car, at this distance it wouldn't matter.

" _I will carry out my mission,"_ came Aoi's voice. The way the words sounded so similar, so hauntingly similar to how he must have sounded only a few years ago… _"I will change this world into Father's design. I will lead the people into a new future. They will be free from fear and pain for all eternity."_

He smirked, ruefully. "Only death can give such freedom."

_"Then I'll kill you."_

"If you kill us, all of us, no one will be left. You'll be alone again. Like you were in space. For years. Is that what you want?"

The suit was silent, unmoving. She didn't fire, but then again, the rifle barrel didn't move from its mark either.

Heero's heartbeat was steady, his body ridged as he stared down the multi-ton machine and its pilot.

The suit shifted, just a fraction, as if inside, Aoi was looking past him.

Heero turned slightly, looking back over his shoulder.

He shouldn't have been surprised…

There, at the top of the stairs, Relena watched them, worry and pity pulling her face into a sad expression. _She_ wasn't looking at him either, she was staring at the mobile suit as if the mere sight of it pained her.

Very slowly, as if in disbelief, or maybe disappointment, she shook her head.

A sudden surge swept the air as the mobile suits' verniers fired, displacing canal water as the it rose towards the sky, weapon arcing to holster back against the shoulder. Heero let his own shoulders relax just a fraction, keeping his gaze locked on the helmet as the craft raised higher than the first few stories of the adjacent office buildings.

He narrowed his eyes.

What on earth was the girl doing?

With swift precision the suit changed course, and with a final burst of fuel it arched low towards the waters surface and up again, propelling over the tops of the buildings and out of the city center.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***some plot info in the last chapter (12) has been expanded, so I'd recommend a re-read*** 
> 
> Uh... hey ya'll. Heh heh... um... ahem~
> 
> You can thank Lady V and blame a really shitty episode of Gundam Unicorn for making me want to write more of this fic after *years* of it sitting on the shelf. GW is just *sigh* the best Gundam series...
> 
> I always did want to finish this. 
> 
> I'll be going back and adding more smut to the vaguely smutty parts between this post and Chapter 14, so keep a lookout for that. Enjoy!

As soon as the new Gundam glittered out of sight, Heero turned on his heel and took the stairs back up, brushing by Relena’s shoulder as he passed.

“I’m going after her.”

A gentle hand gripped his arm, and although he could have easily broken away, he stopped.

“How do plan to catch up with her, Heero?”

His hand clenched into a fist. He really didn’t know. But Aoi would fly to wherever Ferox was hiding, and if he were somehow able to pursue her, she’d lead him right to the bastard.

He swallowed, brows furrowed. “Why did she stop?” Turning, he saw Relena looking at him in question. He tried again. “She was going to shoot me with that rifle. Why did she stop when she saw you?”

“I…” confusion flickered over Relena’s face, “I don't know. Could it be her training? Could there be some kind of order to spare my life? It wouldn’t be the first time the bad guys had plans for me, Heero.”

Somehow, he doubted that. There would have been plenty of opportunities to snatch Relena away from the group if that was his end game. Instead, he had sent his minions after Aoi. She was their target. And when they failed in kidnapping her, they turned on her homing device, leading her Gundam straight to them…

But Relena had shown her kindness in the desert. Aoi hadn’t killed them. Was that why? Was she really still human?

“Hey!” Duo called, pointing skyward. “Something else is up there!”

Heero squinted into the sun over the gleaming buildings. A large object was rapidly coming into focus.

A growl worked its way up his throat.

Another one? _Two_ mobile suits? Now they all were well and truly fucked.

The crowd of Preventers agents and news crews scattered as bellowing wind from twin thrusters kicked up dirt and grit.

It looked like… an old Leo suit? No… an Aeries?

Duo cocked his firearm and Heero followed suit, both barrels trained on the cockpit door.The other pilot voices what Heero was thinking when he barked, “Just what the hell is _that_ thing doing here?!”

The antique, for it was certainly old enough to be classified as one, nearly fell upon the ground, rather than landing. The knee joints sounded weak and stiff from disuse as it settled upon the pavement almost bent double, the arm creaking out to steady itself upon the ground.

With a stuttering sound the engine cut, rockets affixed to the back sputtering into silence.

The kicked-up wind died as they all looked on, slack jawed, until Duo called out, “Alright whoever you are, come outta there with your hands up!”

Immediately a voice buzzed back, sharp, out of the cockpit speaker, _“Don’t you dare shoot me, Maxwell, if you know what’s good for you.”_

The American blinked. “Wufei!”

There was an almighty _bang_ and hatch door popped open, but only after it looked like Wufei had kicked at the inside panel with his heel.

Heero called out over the noise, “I thought you’d abandoned us.”

Wufei sent him a baleful look as he jumped nimbly to the ground. “ _Someone_ had to rescue you all from your own stupidity.”

“And you brought _this?”_ As he holstered his gun with one hand, Duo gestured towards the suit with the other.

Up close, Heero saw that it _was_ a Leo, only it seemed to have Aeries thrusters grafted onto the back. The parts were mismatched and different colors; a fine patina of rust smattered the left side from helm to holster.

“Your lucky I was able to find this at all.” Wufei folded his arms, lip curling. “All the well-functioning mobile suits were destroyed after the War.”

“And this one wasn’t?” Relena’s calm voice cut through as she took a step around from behind Heero. She didn’t sound accusatory, just curious, but she certainly would have had a right to reprimand. Relena had been the champion speaker for the mobile suit decommissioning mandate.

“This one must have fallen through the cracks,” Wufei murmured, a frown pulling at his lips as he looked away, not meeting Relena’s gaze. His eyes fell instead on Sally, who was still standing by her Preventer’s cruiser, not saying a word. Unable to look at either woman, the man wrinkled his nose and tilted his chin up, speaking towards the sky. “If you insist on blaming me, you’ll have to blame Noin as well. She was the one who stockpiled all the old junkers, like this one-- a prototype Aeries from however how long ago. ”

Relena gave a start. “Noin?” She breathed in shock.

Heero gave a half shrug. That wasn’t any surprise. Noin always did have a thing for a strong defense. Perhaps having a patchwork mothball fleet of… _one…_ was something they could work with, but the fact that this… _thing_ was the best Wufei had come up with was a bit unsettling. It seemed like Relena’s mandate had worked. Too well.

“So,” he said in a hard voice, getting back to the task at hand, “you know about Aoi’s Gundam.”

Wufei nodded once. “The radio. Also Quatre. I won’t say ‘I told you so’, but…" In the distance there was an almighty _boom_ that echoed on the air, cutting off his snarky remark.

Relena whirled around, looking out over the tops of the buildings beyond the canal, to the source of the noise. “What was that?”

“Someone’s detonated explosives near the Assembly building!” Sally called from where she leaned into the driver’s seat of her car, one hand to her earpiece and the other on the display screen against the dashboard.

Relena touched Heero’s arm. “Is it Aoi? Looking for Ferox perhaps?”

“Maybe it’s his supporters,” Heero said evenly.

“Ferox wants chaos,” Duo murmured, concentrating on his shoes, “and when the dust settles, he wants Aoi to be standing on the ashes. _Just_ like how Meteor was suppose to go,” he added, scuffing his heel on the pavement. “Maybe he was planning on double-crossing Dekim in the thick of it. But it was so long ago...”

“The dead woman,” Relena’s voice was just above a whisper, “what did she say?”

Heero pulled out his firearm and checked the clip. “She said Aoi was the only one who could rule Earth and Space. She’s a perfected _version_. That people would follow her like a God.

Wufei frowned. “You’re saying the girl isn’t human.”

Heero shook his head; caught Relena’s gaze. “No. I don’t believe that at all.” She’d been programed, true, but there was still a person in there. At Une’s place she was… Relena offered him a weak smile. “If they could train her hard enough, download the operating system right into her, Ferox thought that she’d be immune to… humanity.”

Under his breath, Duo muttered, “Damn.”

Wufei crossed his arms. “That right? And just how do you know all that, huh?”

Heero clenched his fist, feeling the tension surge up his arm. An inhuman strength. No—

Enhanced human.

“Because they tried it with me.”

Aoi’s was just the next iteration of the experiment. Maybe they saw the same promise in her that they did in him, but he just wasn’t good enough. Malleable enough. Was Aoi what he would have become, if the Barton Foundation had been a few years more advanced? If Lowe hadn’t snatched him away? He snorted darkly. “Guess getting kidnapped has its advantages.” The humor didn’t carry; the others were quiet.

Relena was watching him, and there was an expression there he’d never seen before.

What was she thinking?

That he really was as messed up he’d been trying to tell here all these years?

No, that wasn’t like Relena.

There was naked devotion there, yes, but something fierce too in the hardness of he gaze. She was more like the rest of them now then he’d ever admitted before. Maybe she understood him more then he realized.

Duo cleared his throat.

Heero looked to Wufei. “Equipment?”

“You’ve got fuel,” the other agent replied, “but not enough as you probably need. The gattling affixed to the left arm has one full clip, but that’s it. It’ll disengage once spent, just hit the button. There’s a beam saber scavenged from some Mobile Doll unit against the left leg, but it _will_ deplete your fuel supply. And there’s no reserve.”

“So you’re telling me there’s still a chance can win,” Heero deadpanned, walking over to lay a hand on the hatch door.

Wufei frowned. “There’s a Gundanium blade hidden under the suit’s right hand, but you’ll have to jettison the glove to use it.”

Relena stepped forward. “You’re going to fight her?” She was still scraped up; a cut from the cruiser’s broken glass had drie dried against her cheek. He squared his shoulders, didn’t look at her.

“I need to protect the city.” _I need to do what I can._

“But, Heero! She’s your--”

“I agree with you.”

“I— what?”

“She’s still just a kid.” Ferox he would put down like a dog, but Aoi? Maybe he could talk her down. “I’ll try not to… hurt her.” Christ, what was he saying? “You’ll be taken back to the Preventer’s headquarters,” he said, rounding back to her.

She nodded. “We’ll be safe. You don’t need to worry.”

He nodded, and turned to away hoist himself into the cockpit.

“And Heero?”

He poked his head back down, eyebrows quirked up in question.

Relena smiled softly. “Good luck.”

“Roger that.”

Strapping himself into the pilot’s chair, Heero strained forward to pull the hatch door closed. It swung in with a creak as he powered up the on-board system. The display screen was cracked along one side, distorting the old OZ logo that popped up before being replaced with the view from the helmet cam. At least _that_ worked…

The suit moved under his fingers as he gripped the joystick. Relena, looking up into the Leo’s viewfinder, took a few steps back as the mobile suit strained and pulled backwards into an up-right position.

Damn, he thought as the joints groaned, this thing was stiff…

Heero flipped on the radio transmitter, tuning it to the appropriate channel.

“Quatre, you there?”

After a moment there came a slightly confused, _“Yeah but… what are you going to do, Heero?”_

“I don’t have time to explain.” The rockets on the back of the suit roared to life, lifting him off the ground. “Can you see her?”

He gave Relena’s rapidly shrinking form one last look as he took to the air, giving the controls a quick diagnostic as the mobile suit dipped to the right and to the left.

He looked mistrustfully at the fuel gauge. Wufei had spent a fair amount getting here, but there would be enough. There had to be.

The force of flying pressed his body back against the restraints, and there was that feeling… being inside a cockpit again, feeling the suit thrum with life all around him; he’d forgotten just how it had made him feel. How natural it was. Years later and the muscle memory still took over, relaxing his body into the harness, a wave of calm rolling down his shoulders into the base of his spine.

A pixilated map of the city appeared on the display, a target blinking a few miles up ahead.

Quatre’s voice crackled through. _“She’s near the square downtown, outside the Assembly building! Looks like a huge mob of people are setting fire to the government facilities there!”_

Damn. That was in the city center, too. There’d be mass casualties if they fought…

Flying low through the city streets, only a few stories off the ground to mask his approach, Heero could see civilians stare up in shocked at the junked suit going by overhead. The years of peace had softened them—they stopped as they ran from the epicenter of the explosion to gaze in wonder.

Switching channels, he radioed Sally. “Have Dorothy declare a State of Emergency. Tell people to stay indoors.”

A more drastic move would have been to begin evacuation procedures, but that would only get more people out into the streets, and if Aoi got the idea that she was suppose to be subduing the public, bending them to her will with the help of Ferox’s mob, things could get ugly.

_“Got it!”_

A shrill beeping noise alerted Heero that his target was just up ahead. Landing as gently as he could a few block away, he shielded himself behind one of the skyscrapers.

Peeking out from around the side, he could see the immense black Gundam shining amidst the trees of the park, surrounded by hundreds of people. Just how long had Ferox’s cult been growing? Disillusioned soldiers, civilians who had lost everything… Heero bet Ferox started recruiting just as the carnage from Operation Meteor began its decent onto Earth. The fear and destruction the Gundams, the Bartons, OZ had inflicted upon the Sphere had been his perfect recruiting tool.

He had to lead her away, out of the city. Perhaps over the bay? It was far, he didn’t have much fuel, but if he could get her to chase him… He had to act fast, before she—

The Gundam raised its small beam rifle, leveling it at the broad-columned entrance to the Assembly building, plumes of smoke already billowing from its windows from the mob’s own attack. The machine whirled, the weapon glowed with heat, and it fired.

The shot was precise, right through the front doors, even as people ran down the steps and into the street. An explosion, a giant burgeoning flame, pushed the building apart from the inside, and obliterating everything in its path.

Over the deafening noise, Ferox’s voice—calm, calculated, pensive—echoed down from the Gundam’s helmet.

_“Do not be afraid, my children. These trappings of man were not meant for a true world of peace. Repent and join us. The Nova Gundam will protect all those who pledge their hearts to our cause.”_

The Nova Gundam…

Heero punched the radio as he swung the Leo out from its hiding place, burning the thrusters to rocket him forward. “Find out where that damn audio is coming from!”

Aoi saw him coming, aimed her rifle in his direction. Heero cut the engines and the Leo fell, hard, upon the ruined street. The suit’s joints groaned as a glittering beam of crackling energy rushed over its back. He could feel the flash of heat in the metal around him.

“What the--”

It didn’t have to wait and re-charge?

The sound of the rifle winding up to fire again spurred him to action. Heero cranked the controls and the left thruster flared, rolling the suit to the right as he skidded over the empty sidewalks. The beam shot past him.

His radio crackled.

_“Keep still.”_

It was Aoi.

She fired again, but he was up, rocketing close to the ground, shredding the trees as he barreled toward her. They hit; Nova stumbled, and the Leo groaned in protest as its elbow rammed into the Gundam’s knee joint. Debris and chunks of shorn earth rained down and people scattered. Reaching to grip the Leo by the shoulders in a crushing hold, Aoi hoisted Heero upward, squeezing the small suit between the Gundam’s powerful gauntlets.

Around him, the cockpit squealed with the pressure.

_“Father said I should kill you.”_

He smirked. “Having second thoughts?"

Aoi growled, squeezing harder.

"I thought,” he grunted with strain, trying to pull his suit from the other’s grasp, “that’s what you wanted. People either join you, or they die.”

_“You were so close to being what I am," she lamented with little emotion. "If only you were stronger.”_

Strong enough, he thought, as the Leo to gripped the saber on his flank, stripping it out of the holster, purple beam bursting to life. He swiped it up the Gundam’s arms, but the blade didn’t penetrate. Instead of cutting through, the heat only ate away at the top layer. Still, Aoi had gone slack on the controls, for just the briefest of moments; he could feel it in the slight way the Gundam’s grip changed. Taking advantage, he rolled the Leo out of Nova’s clutches.

Landing out of reach, Heero took a defensive stance.

Nova straightened up, and high-pitched giddy laugh coming through on the radio.

_“A **real** challenge! This is **ten** times better than a simulation!”_

Damn it. Just how much had the on-board program enhanced her?

A digital map popped up on the corner of the Leo’s display, yellow crosshairs zooming out from one particular building to include the surrounding area before repeating. Sent from the Preventers no doubt.

And that was—

Nova bolted toward him

The warehouse district.

He dodged, but instead of curling into a counterattack, he powered up the thrusters.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Heero said to the other pilot, keeping his voice deadly calm. “Stay out of my way,” he goaded. On purpose.

It only took Aoi a few seconds to realize where he was going before she followed, verniers scorching the earth as she braced and took off after him. Heero watched in the rear camera display. She was too fast. He’d have to lose her just long enough to get a good lead…

Using the buildings to his advantage, the Leo slipped around corners with as much speed and maneuverability Heero could coax out of the old machine. Nova lost him around the financial district, and he took full advantage, staying low to the ground, keeping to the shadows. Over the intercom he could hear Aoi’s shrieks of giggling rage.

When he got to the edge of the city, when the glittering buildings gave way to hangers and storage units, he pushed the thrusters to full and streaked into the sky, high enough that he’d be seen, arching towards the mostly-deserted warehouses and docks.

Ferox, he thought, I'll kill you.

Nova was on his tail in seconds, and he had to dodge the light artillery that sprayed across the sky.

Heero checked his own gatling clip.

There was no way he’d be able to pierce through that mobile suit’s armor with inferior projectiles. His best bet would be the beam saber. Even if it wasn’t strong enough to slice through in one go, a good hacking might take off one of the arms. Or a leg. His fuel would run out a lot quicker that way though…

What a mess.

If he had any chance at all it would be when Aoi had her back turned. A surprise attack might make all the difference.

Heero barely had time to react before he reached the ground—an abandoned junkyard—before the Gundam was upon him. Using Nova’s own momentum, the Leo pivoted, ducked to grab at the Gundam’s leg, hurling the machine away from him and into a surrounding building. The roof buckled and caved as the suit smashed in upon it, disappearing in a plume of dust and debris.

The _pip_ of Ferox’s location grew louder, more rapid.

He was close.

Taking advantage of borrowed time, Heero landed in front of an unmarked building. The source of the transmission. Gripping the roof, he sunk the Leo’s fingers into the corrugated metal, which puckered and buckled as he ripped the top away, peeling it back like the lid of a soup can.

Zooming in, Heero froze. There, on the floor next to a tangle of wires and equipment, was a speaker. And a recorder.

The transmission was… a fake?

A rapid beeping alerted him to an oncoming threat. Heero yanked the joystick towards himself. The Leo’s legs slipped upon the ground, suit falling backward to avoid Nova’s oncoming blow.

Aoi’s short blades, extending from the back of the Gundam’s gauntlets, sunk into the side of the hanger just beside the Leo’s head.

So fast! And dancing out of her reach required quick, hard, thruster bursts— and all his fuel.

Heero emptied the entire clip of his gun in the Gundam’s direction. Nova stumbled backwards under the onslaught in a mushroom-burst of flame. His bullets must have pierced some fuel tank next to the building site. The gatling gun, spent, fell to the earth.

From where his suit lay on its side, and through the bellowing smoke and distorting heat waves rising off the explosion, Heero could see the black Gundam slowly began to straighten itself up.

If he didn’t move now, she’d get away for sure. Forget Ferox. He could kill the man in person, his hands wrapped around the man’s neck, but he had to stop Aoi before she ripped apart the city.

“Get up,” he commanded to his dashboard, pulling at the controls. The Leo’s mechanics whined, he could smell circuits burning, but the legs did bend, hoisting the main body up from the ground.

As sparks floated off into the air, Nova began to square itself.

With a final burst of speed, rerouting every last bit of energy to the rear thrusters, he tried to aim as accurately as he could at the Gundam and pushed the controls to maximum, as far as they would go. The weight of the collision caused them both to careen backwards, falling downward. With a jarring slam they hit the ground, and the worn-out shoulder restraints in the Leo snapped at the last moment, causing Heero to fall forward, his middle still secured by a lap belt, upper body splaying against display screen with a crack of his forehead and a grunt of pain.

The Leo’s engines, burning through the last bit of fuel, sputtered, crushing Aoi’s Gundam into the ground where she was pinned.

On screen, a warning blinked.

_Remaining Power at 15%_

He didn’t have much time. The only way to get her out of that machine was to _rip_ her out.

Working from his now slightly awkward position, Heero decoupled the Leo’s right, and underneath, extending from the arm, was a shinning blade. He drove it down into the side of the Gundam’s cockpit seal, prying at it. It was the most vulnerable point-- the hatch-- which was designed to open anyway. And even Gundams cut under Gundanium blades. There was a hiss as the arm of his suit began to buckle in on itself as he continued to crush the controls forward.

Sparks sizzled along the dashboard.

The Leo was nearly toast, but in it’s last groaning moments, and with a turn of the blade, he pried enough of the cockpit open to reveal a small sliver of black, a crevasse big enough he could just wiggle through.

Punching the Emergency Release button, his own hatch door popped and fell away, clanging onto the ground below.

Locking his controls in place, Heero unbuckled the remaining safety strap, scrambling forward to teeter on the edge of the open cockpit. Calculating the distance quickly in his head, he jumped the distance between the two suits.

For a moment he seemed to hang in the air, before he fell, body hitting just above the small opening made in hatch. The force of the fall knocked all the air from his lungs, but despite the ragged breath that left his head spinning, he had enough sense to scramble for a handhold.

The Leo’s energy supply dwindled, but the blade was still stuck. The old mobile suit became dead weight as it stuttered and died. Heero dropped himself down into the small opening just Aoi was able to push the Leo away, just as the hatch snapped shut again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for keeping the faith, guys ;D  
> Love ya'll.

**Author's Note:**

> A/n- This kind of a 'sequel' to my 1xR fic 'Disarmament'. Really, I guess you could call it a spin-off as the other focused on Relena and this one will focus heavily on Heero.
> 
> You CAN read this one without having read the other, but just be aware that some minor information in this story is based on events in 'Disarmament'.
> 
> Thanks for reading, please review!


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